Making Our COVID Survivors Whole Again By Solving Yet Another Desperate Shortage

LOS ANGELES, CA, Aug. 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE – US Nuclear Corp. (OTC: UCLE) aims to combat COVID-19 and help patients and survivors of the virus by working together with MIFTEC to produce an unlimited supply of domestic, low-cost medical isotopes.  

The IAEA is supporting more than 121 countries with RT-PCR equipment, which is used to rapidly detect COVID-19 in real-time by a nuclear-derived technique and is one of the most widely used and accurate lab methods. The isotope Co-60 is also being used to sterilize medical equipment, devices, and supplies for COVID-19 professionals to ensure they are safe for use.  Co-60 irradiation is one of the quickest and most effective methods for sterilizing large volumes of this equipment.   

Medical isotopes and nuclear medicine are proving to be effective in sterilizing, detecting, and fighting COVID-19 and guiding successful treatment. In addition to damaging the patient’s lungs, this virus also attacks the heart, the blood vessels, liver, intestines, brain, and nervous system. It causes blood clots and sometimes stroke or seizures.  Unfortunately, as a result, many of our COVID-19 survivors will need serious medical help for months or years to come.

Medical isotopes are being used for lung diagnostics, determining the extent of the patient’s disease, and for mapping the COVID-19 proteins, while others are being researched as a possible treatment for combating severe COVID-19 cases. Medical isotopes are necessary for nuclear medicine diagnostic scans to guide the physician in treating our brave survivors.

The problem is that medical isotopes have been in desperate shortage at US hospitals and around the world for years, and according to the IAEA, recent bottlenecks in transport and distribution of medical isotopes will lead to even more severe shortages at a time when they are most needed. Pre COVID-19, the shortage of medical isotopes was an estimated $7 billion shortage/year. Currently, there are no suppliers in the USA and existing international suppliers are few and limited in their capacity. A fragile network of fewer than a dozen nuclear reactors supply the entire world.