How India's fighting Covid-19 with low-cost ventilators, face shields

With the country worried about a shortage of ventilators if Covid-19 cases rise exponentially, some innovative doctors have come to the rescue. Dr Deepak Agrawal, professor of neurosurgery at AIIMS, and Diwakar Vaish, a robotics scientist, who previously developed the world’s cheapest ventilator ‘AgVa’, have improved upon capabilities of this ventilator by incorporating a patent pending negative ion generator which inactivates the virus. medium74963094“The inactivated virus is trapped at the expiratory end by a positive charge system thus protecting the environment,” Dr Agrawal said, who named his device AgVa COVID. The health ministry earlier said it has placed an order for 1,000 ventilators from AgVa Healthcare. “Supplies are expected to commence by the second week of April,” it added. The firm had received orders for over 50,000 ventilators from across the globe which it had to cancel due to sudden export ban on ventilators by the government, sources said. It is now channelising its resources to meet the needs of central and different state governments. medium74962896The government has also placed an order for 30,000 ventilators from Bharat Electronics Limited, which is going to collaborate with domestic manufacturers in this endeavour. “Indian auto manufacturers are also preparing to manufacture ventilators,” the government said. Additionally, the Ministry of External Affairs is approaching suppliers in China for sourcing 10,000 ventilators from them.Eight people on one ventilatorIn Nagpur’s New Era hospital, doctors have developed a tool with which eight patients can be put on one ventilator at the same time. Though ventilator splitters are not new, this one is said to be the first to serve eight patients at a time.Ventilators are required for Covid-19 patients, who could develop acute respiratory disease syndrome (ARDS). Less than 20 Covid-19 patients are on ventilator support at this moment, according to the health ministry. As against this, over 14,000 ventilators have been identified in various hospitals across the country for treatment of Covid-19 patients, the ministry says.However, experts say the need for ventilators may rise exponentially. “Two days ago, we made this ‘splitter’ with the use of computerised 3-D printing mechanism. Now, in case of emergency, such as mass casualties, we can ventilate eight patients with one ventilator. We can make more such splitters, if needed,” said Dr Anand Sancheti, director of New Era Hospital.medium74980573Pulmonologist Dr Sameer Arbat has, meanwhile, designed a safety box for performing difficult bronchoscopy procedures in suspected or confirmed Covid-19 patients. “Covid-19 spreads through coughing and sneezing, so it is very risky to perform bronchoscopy procedures in suspected or confirmed Covid-19 patients. The aerosols generated by a patient during such procedures can infect the doctor as well as spread in the surrounding area, thus infecting other patients,” said Dr Arbat.He worked on this design during the lockdown and used only acrylic sheets and plastic materials available in the hospital as all vendors were shut. According to him, the prototype model has already been used and can be easily replicated by any doctor or hospital.Untitled Carousel 74808438MG Motor to incentivise 'quick-to-produce' ventilator designAutomobile manufacturer MG Motor India has commenced a challenge to find a quick-to-produce ventilator design. Following evaluation of the ventilator design concept by medical experts, the company will give a grant of Rs 10 lakh under the MG Developer Program & Grant.The carmaker will also provide production support for the proposed ventilator prototype at its Halol manufacturing facility to ensure swifter market deployment. In keeping with the critical need for swift deployment of affordable ventilators, the last date of submitting applications is April 15.PGIMER Chandigarh doctor invents prototype of automatic AMBU ventilatorA Chandigarh-based medical college professor, Dr Rajeev Chauhan, assistant professor in the anesthesiology department at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), and his team have come up with a prototype for an affordable and automatic Artificial Manual Breathing Unit (AMBU) operating device, which could be crucial in India's fight against Covid-19. medium74967202The professor collaborated with a small startup company Gyrodrive Machineries Ltd, Pune, with two young enthusiastic engineer passouts of IISc Bangalore - Eshan Dhar and Akash Gaddamwar."We have been working on this project for the last one year and filed patent after we were ready with our basic prototype," said Dr Chauhan, who began working on this unit in 2018. The automatic AMBU bag has been patented in Dr Rajeev Chauhan's name. This device can be operated by a small motor that will automatically pump the AMBU bag at the required rate. Meanwhile, in response to allegations of intellectual property (IP) theft by the PGIMER-based doctors in Chandigarh, auto maker Mahindra & Mahindra said it has no intention of making profit from the manufacture of respirators and does not intend to continue manufacturing them after the end of the pandemic as it is completely unrelated to its mainstream businesses. "In addition, as soon as our design is approved, we will make our design ‘open source’, which means any individual, institute or company can start making them in the future as a for-profit business should they so desire. This is why it is so unfortunate that allegations of IP violation are being made in this context. Particularly since we have only used information in the public domain and our own capabilities and skills in designing our respirator prototype,” the spokesperson stated. According to him, the company was first approached for collaboration by a team from IISc and PGIMER and later defamed. The Association of Resident Doctors PGIMER has alleged that Mahindra copied their innovation in a span of 48 hours in the name of national emergency.IIT-M team gives free face shields to doctors, copsTo protect health professionals and police, a team from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras has developed a face shield and is distributing it for free. medium74964181“This is a dangerous period for us all, and we cannot afford any of our health professionals or police contracting the virus and falling ill,” said Hari Ramachandran, a dual degree student at IIT-M. Hari with his friends Pranit Mehta, Anuj Khandalkar and Denil Chawda, professor Satya Chakravarty and alumni Ravi Santhanam and Suyash Singh decided to create a face shield that protects the eyes, nose, and mouth of the wearer from splashes and sprays of infectious body fluids.In colloaboration with Padmaja Padarthi, co-founder of NexGen 3D printers, they have manufactured 5.000 face shields, out of which 3,000 have been distributed to hospitals and professionals.Face shields are personal protective equipment that are used to cover the face of the wearer and protect it against infectious materials and splashes. It has a thick transparent plastic sheet that doesn’t allow water droplets to enter. These, when worn with the N95 masks, are best suited for the protection of the wearer.Pune startup developing low-cost ventilators Engineers at NOCCA Robotics Private Limited, a start-up in Pune are also working on developing low-cost ventilators in a bid to help the country in its fight against coronavirus. The invasive ventilators being developed by the engineers at NOCCA will cost less than Rs 50,000. A ventilator is a device that helps a patient breathe, giving them time to fight off infections and recover.Nikhil Kurele, one of the founders of NOCCA Robotics, said, "Our objective is to build a portable ventilator. The ventilators that we are developing will cost less than Rs 50,000. It is not a full-fledged ventilator. It has features for Covid-19 patients specifically."As per the estimates by a team of researchers affiliated with Johns Hopkins University, Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy, and Princeton University, India's current capacity is estimated at 30,000-50,000 ventilators. The country could need as many as one million ventilators to address the peak by July 2020.Untitled Carousel 74942548Inputs from Durgesh Nandan Jha, Chaitanya Deshpande, agency reports