• A 5 minute-long exposure to the Violeds, used for sterilization of space stations, confirmed the 99.9% elimination of Hepatitis C virus.

• A new finding in the prevention and transfer control of Hepatitis C that has been considered as an acquired incurable disease.

• Discussion of the applications such as sterilization kits for home-use and sterilization products for stethoscopes, medical tools, scrubs, and others.

• Research in progress for sterilizing MERS virus with the national level support from Saudi Arabia.

On December 10^th, SEOUL VIOSYS (President Jaejo Kim,www.seoulviosys.com ), a global leading company in UV LED solutions, announced that they provided the Violeds, a space station cleaning technology, to Professor Soon-Bong Hwang, Korea’s leading expert in Hepatitis C research, and his research team (National Research Laboratory for Hepatitis C virus (NRL)) at Ilsong Institute of Life Sciences of Hallym University and the research team found that 99.9% of Hepatitis C virus was eliminated after a 5 minute-long exposure to the UV LED package with the application of the Violeds technology from the results of experiments that measured the effect of sterilization of Hepatitis C virus.

This experiment on the eradication and transfer prevention of Hepatitis C virus was conducted with SEOUL VIOSYS’s provision of the Violeds technology and equipments to the Ilsong Institute of Life Sciences. With the increase in national interests in Hepatitis C from the recent outbreak of Hepatitis C at a hospital in the country, considering that the experiment led by Soon-bong Hwang’s research team proved the Violeds technology’s ability to completely eliminate Hepatitis C virus, it is expected that the Violeds technology will greatly contribute to fundamentally preventing the cross-contamination between patients and medical personnel by sterilizing medical tools (such as dental equipments, blood-drawing needles, surgical blades, forceps, scissors, surgical beds, examination tables, patient beds, injection needles) contaminated by Hepatitis C virus.

Generally, Hepatitis is categorized into five different types, A, B, C, D and E, based on the type of viruses. Of these, Hepatitis C type is an acquired disease infected by blood, bodily fluids or blood fusion, sexual contacts, or use of contaminated medical equipments, and has the characteristic of most of infected people developing a chronic hepatitis. Human body activates an immune system to eliminate the virus that enters the body, however, Hepatitis C virus with the characteristic of RNA genome, after infecting the liver, continuously generates mutants and incapacitates the immune system of the host. According to research, 5~20% of patients infected with Hepatitis C virus become patients of hepatocirrhosis after 20~25 years of the infection and 1~5% of the infected be developed to hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer) annually. Hepatitis C does not have a vaccine and its route of infection is often unclear, and thus, is a terrible disease that can harm not only the patients themselves but also their families and colleagues. For this reason, more special caution and aggressive treatment are required.

The biggest contribution of the research experiment on the elimination of Hepatitis C virus with the application of Violeds technology led by Professor Soon-bong Hwang’s research team is the complete elimination of Hepatitis C virus with the very simple and easy method using the UV sterilization technology that has never been used previously for a short period of time. Unlike the UV mercury lamp that uses a environmental pollutant, mercury, takes up a large space, and has a limited range of applications due to the heating issues, the Violeds technology, with its characteristics of micro size, high efficiency, and long life, has advantages that allow for the technology to be applied to micro-sized medical tools and equipments and to be produced as a kit form that can be easily used by patients of Hepatitis C.

Actually, according to the ‘Recommendations for general public and patients with Hepatitis C’ announced by Korean nursing associations, it is recommended for patients with Hepatitis C not to share toothbrushes, dental hygiene products, razors, nail clippers and such with their families due to the risk of cross-contamination through the shared-use of household items. With the use of sterilizer kit for home use produced with the Violeds technology, such discomfort of daily life is expected to reduce significantly. SEOUL VIOSYS is planning to lead the prevention and eradication of Hepatitis C around the world by developing various medical equipments that can prevent cross-contamination of Hepatitis C virus with Professor Soon-Bong Hwang’s research team at Ilsong Institute of Life Sciences of Hallym University. 

The Violeds technology is used not only for Hepatitis C but also for the research on the sterilization of MERS virus. On December 3^rd, at the intellectual property protection special lecture held at Seoul Marriott hotel, Professor Shuji Nakamura disclosed that he is conducting research on the sterilization of MERS virus with the request from the Saudi Arabian government. Professor Shuji Nakamura is the 2014 Nobel Laureate in Physics for developing a bright blue LED and is participating in various researches on UV rays as a technical advisor of SEOUL VIOSYS.

Professor Soon-Bong Hwang, Korea’s leading expert in Hepatitis C research, at Ilsong Institute of Life Sciences of Hallym University stated that “The Violeds technology is a powerful sterilization technology that can completely eliminate 99.9% of Hepatitis C virus, and expected to greatly contribute to reducing the incidence rate of Hepatitis C by preventing the transfer of Hepatitis C via cross-contamination,” and “I hope the Violeds technology, that has the astonishing ability to sterilize even space stations, is not only expanded to everyday lives but also applied in the medical field for various areas, such as the prevention of cross-contamination of viral or bacterial diseases, and continues to develop the technology to provide dreams and hopes to the medical personnel and patients all over the world.”

As a reply, Gichun Lee, the vice president of SEOUL VIOSYS laboratory, stated that “the Violeds is safe UV rays that can be used anywhere that needs sterilization such as areas of electronics, furniture, automobiles, medicine, and currently, we are discussing with global manufacturers of medical equipments about producing and supplying medical equipments including stethoscopes and sterilizer for scrubs.” And “in Korea, it is difficult for small businesses to commercialize a technology that has been researched and developed over ten years, and we hope the government actively pays attentions and develops the support measures for the projects that can directly benefit the health of citizens.”

Further, he stated that, “SEOUL VIOSYS will try to become a company that contributes to the expansion of healthy life of humankind and enhancement of the quality of life by eliminating harmful viruses such as Ebola and MERS that panic people around the world with the use of the Violeds technology.”