Makerere University is putting final touches on its own ventilator prototype that’s hoped to be launched this week, and help in treatment of severe Covid19 complications in needed.
The university together with local and international partners has developed what they care calling an Open Design Low-Cost Ventilator that might be ready by this weekend.
While the ventilator adapts open access designs from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Florida, and other Public License Ventilator Technology Developers, Makerere believes the capacity developed in the area for local content participation in the manufacture of Low-Cost ventilators will be valuable to Uganda even beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic.
“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,” Makerere said in a statement.
Some of the partners that the university is working with include Resilient Africa Network (RAN), a project of the School of Public Health, Kiira Motors Corporation, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI).
Analysts have projected increased global demand for ventilators resultant from the continual increase in severe COVID-19 cases. An increase in conventional ventilator production is very likely to fall short of global demand and with high associated cost.
Uganda currently has only 12 functional Intensive Care Units equipped with a total of 55 functional beds implying an estimated 55 ventilators. This translates to other words, 1.3 beds (with ventilators) per a million people.
The ventilators on the market go for up to USD 25,000.
“There is therefore need for low cost ventilators that can be manufactured locally,” Makerere says.
“Such ventilators would bolster the country’s surge capacity to provide critical care in case the demand for such care increases.”
The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation has committed to work closely with the Ministry of Health, Uganda National Bureau of Standards and other Key Stakeholders to provide policy guidance and coordination to ensure the project results meet National and International Standards for Technology of such a nature.
Source: chimpreports.com