As several health facilities continue to hunt for the cure and ways of stopping the spread of Coronavirus, we have received information that Makerere University scientists are on final touches of launching their own ventilator prototype.
The ventilator is expected to be launched this weekend (Friday) so that it can help in treatment of severe Covid 19 respiratory complications that may require immediate attention.
According to a statement shared on the university’s dedicated website to fight the virus, two prototypes of the design will be ready by Friday 10th April, 2020 so that the testing and iteration process can begin over the weekend.
The project is a collaborative effort between Makerere University, Resilient Africa Network (RAN) a project of the School of Public Health, Kiira Motors Corporation and Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.
The yet to be launched ventilator which adapts open access designs from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Florida, and other Public License Ventilator Technology Developers is expected be valuable to Uganda even after the COVID-19 Pandemic, according to scientists.
“The Ventilator Architecture, Operational Mechanism and underlying technology are similar to Vehicular Powertrain Systems from a Technology Perspective. Perhaps that is why it is not surprising to see several global automotive manufacturers such as General Motors, Mercedes Benz, Tesla, and Ferrari among others, have been able to switch Vehicle Plants to manufacturing of Ventilators in some cases using parts of their Vehicle Model Supply Chain,” reads part of the statement shared by Makerere.
Statistics show that Uganda has 12 functional Intensive Care Units equipped with a total of 55 functional beds implying an estimated 55 ventilators; meaning, 1.3 beds (with ventilators) per a million people. The ventilators on the market are very expensive ( USD 25,000 per ventilator) for low income countries like Uganda.
“There is therefore need for low cost ventilators that can be manufactured locally. Such ventilators would bolster the country’s surge capacity to provide critical care in case the demand for such care increases,” the statement reads further.
The proposed Ventilator is based on an electromechanical Architecture utilizing Motors, Potentiometers, Air Pressure Transducers, Air Flow Transducers, a Valve Mask Compression Unit, Inhalation & Exhalation Control Valves, and a Monitoring System. These assist in inhalation and exhalation by increasing and decreasing the patient’s airway pressure or tidal volume through controlled inhalation and exhalation.
The World Health Organization declared Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) a pandemic that is rapidly spreading across the globe. By press time, the global count stood at over 1.2 Million COVID-19 confirmed cases, with Fifty-Two (52) in Uganda. Critical COVID-19 cases once hospitalized and placed in the Intensive Care Unit for management require a respiratory assistive technology known as a Ventilator.
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