Feature Articles

New Disinfection Technology

Stopping the Deadly MRSA Threat

by Michael David McGuire

Isaac Braun is a man on a mission…and he let's everyone that will listen know that he intends to be a major destroyer of death and disease in America. "One thing that a lot of people do not know is that they are putting themselves at great risk by even going into a hospital or a gym. The MRSA threat is real and out of control," says Braun, pulling out a piece of paper from his briefcase to spell out "Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus" (MRSA) to help me with my notoriously bad spelling habits. "This is a killer… it is effecting thousands of lives… and hospital and gym owners are treating this as a quite, dirty little secret."

I had been on-assignment in Amsterdam to look into new scientific technologies coming out of Europe and had heard about a new UV pulse disinfection technology that had been developed in Russia. My Dutch associate claimed that this was amazing state of the art new stuff that could completely eliminate the MRSA threat at a fraction of the cost of other, more conventional disinfection technologies. My initial inquiries stateside were fruitless, until I spoke with an acquaintance in San Francisco who has been tracking the MRSA/workout gym connection in San Francisco.

The MRSA bacteria had been showing up in alarming rates among homosexual men in the so-called "gay mecca" cities of California. Initial researchers suspected gay sex practices as the culprit, but could not find a definite mode of transmission. It quickly turned out that the same problem was turning up in heterosexual men at the same rate of infection… and that the common link between these two groups was not sex, sexual orientation or sexual practices. The common link was working out at a gym. This was alarming news to my friend who then began researching solutions… which led him to Isaac Braun at a little known North American startup company in New Jersey called DisinfectPro. Braun agreed to meet me for coffee at my neighborhood Starbucks in Union Square. It was one of those semi-grey Manhattan days where New York has not quite decided to shake winter.

"People are very skeptical," Braun said as he showed me color photos of the DisinfectPro technology and explained how the system works. "People have been using UV radiation to kill viruses and bacteria for almost 80 years… it's proven technology… but this is a way to accomplish a better disinfection job faster than with the older, more cumbersome approach." Braun is vice-president of DisinfectPro, the North American license holder for this new approach in disinfection technologies, which he and his associates claim can eliminate virtually 100% of mold, mold spores, viruses, bacteria and flea eggs. "We can absolutely and completely eliminate the MRSA threat… overnight… from any gym or surgical center anywhere."

Braun in some ways comes across as a cocky little Cesar, but he does have a lot of documentation to back up his argument and his technology…that has come with a $1.2 million price tag investment. "The hospitals don't want you or me or anyone to know this," Braun says as he swigs the last of his small coffee, "but two million people will be infected with the MRSA bacteria in hospitals this year. The added cost per patient to the health care system is $10,000 - $15,000 per patient… not counting the lost work and hassle and pain. Multiple that," Braun scribbles on a napkin and underlines for emphasis. "and you get something like over 20 billion dollars of added expense to Medicare and the insurance companies… which is added cost that gets passed on to you and me with higher taxes and health insurance premiums." Braun claims that his new DisinfectPro UV Pulse technology can virtually eliminate this cost in as little as thirty minutes each night in any given surgical center or gym. "The return on investment to the health care system, to the hospital… to the private gym owner… is amazing."

Braun is so confident of his claims that he offers to go anywhere, anytime to offer a free decontamination demonstration to health club and spa owners or to surgical centers. "You know that bad smell in most gyms… even the nice ones?" Braun asks. "Well that day old jock strap smell is really bacteria growing and breeding and spreading... and making people sick. In the old days clients might just get allergies or minor skin infections. In today's world it's MRSA… and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is deadly. At DisinfectPro… we can kill it." Isaac Braun is definitely a man on a mission…and a good example of someone who is willing to put his money where his mouth is. As I tell Braun goodbye and thank him for the interview I am quietly glad that I am not a virus or a mold spore… because this cocky guy would be out to get me.



Worldwide Access + 323.656.3000