Ebola scare driving up demand for Xenex germ-zapping robots, CEO says

Enlarge Photo

Lyndsey Johnson

Xenex CEO Morris Miller says concerns about Ebola and potential superbugs is driving up demand for the San Antonio company's germ-zapping robots.

15 photos

Home of the Day

Sponsor Listing

W. Scott Bailey

Reporter/Project Coordinator- San Antonio Business Journal

Email  |  Twitter  |  Google+  |  Facebook

Some health experts have warned that it's easier to get caught up in an Ebola panic than it is to contract the disease.

While only one person so far has died in the U.S. as a result of Ebola, more health officials are taking greater precautions to prevent the spread of the disease and other potentially lethal infections.

"The arrival of Ebola in the U.S. has served as a wake-up call for our hospitals and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) that current infection prevention efforts aren't enough," Morris Miller, CEO of San Antonio-based Xenex, told me. "There's been a significant spike in interest for our germ-zapping robots."

Xenex, a medical device company that moved its headquarters from Austin to San Antonio in 2012, has developed a pulsed xenon technology that it has incorporated into a robotic device designed to eliminate deadly microorganisms that can cause serious healthcare-associated infections, or HAIs. A number of hospitals in the U.S. have acquired the robots, and now demand for the devices has increased as a result of concerns about Ebola.

One of the providers Xenex has contracted with is Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, where Thomas Eric Duncan became the first U.S. casualty of Ebola.

The U.S. government is also reaching out to Xenex.

"We got a call from Langley Air Force Base two weeks ago and delivered a robot," Miller explained. "The 633 MDG (Medical Group) was the first military hospital to procure Xenex for disaster preparedness."

Miller said the purchase was in response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Langley AFB in Virginia was scheduled to receive military personnel returning from operations in that region of the African continent.

W. Scott Bailey covers health care, tourism, sports business, economic development; he also plans and edits some special reports.