A TEAM of scientists at Kyoto Prefectural University headed by its president, Yasuhiro Tsukamoto, has developed masks that glow when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light if they contain traces of the COVID-19 coronavirus, using antibodies extracted from ostrich eggs.
In February 2020, the team injected an inactive and non-threatening form of the coronavirus into female ostriches, successfully extracting a large number of antibodies from the eggs that they laid. The team then developed a special filter placed inside the face mask. The filter can be taken out and sprayed with a fluorescent dye containing the coronavirus antibodies from the ostrich eggs. If the virus is present, the filter will glow under UV light.
The team conducted experiments for 10 days with 32 people infected with COVID-19 and found that all the masks they wore glowed under UV light, which faded as time went by and their viral load decreased.
