Red Light Laser Therapy could be used to fight COVID-19

(NBC) - What if light therapy could stop the spread of the coronavirus by eliminating the viral load in your nose? One Canadian company with offices in Chicago says it has the technology to make that happen.

“This is a very simple intervention. It takes a couple minutes. It's inexpensive. It's portable,” said Dr. Nicolas Loebel, Chief Technology Officer at Ondine Biomedical, the company that developed the Steriwave Nasal Decolonization Technology. “In our case, we don't see any adverse effects, (or) any significant adverse effects, over a decade in 60,000 patients."

Approved in Canada for use before surgery to help prevent infections including MRSA, Ondine Biomedical says photodisinfection therapy (PDT) can also fight this pandemic.

Studies have shown the coronavirus tends to colonize in the nose, so the process involves swabbing the nose with a blue-colored chemical compound. Then a technician inserts fiber optic probes into the nose and turns on a red light, the kind of light found at the safe end of the spectrum.