Toaster-sized ventilator from India helps hospitals in coronavirus fight

[Balbir]

NEW DELHI (AFP) - Originally created by a robot scientist and a neurosurgeon to help India's poor, a toaster-sized ventilator is offering hope in the country's fight against the coronavirus pandemic and demand is booming.

The virus at its most lethal attacks the lungs, making ventilators - which pump breathable air into a patient - critical for hospitals around the world as they are swamped with cases of Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.

With the toll rising in India, where a nationwide lockdown is in force, production of AgVa's portable ventilator has shot up from 500 a month to 20,000.

"There was no way we could have foreseen something as big as this," said neurosurgeon Deepak Agrawal, who co-developed the device with robot scientist Diwakar Vaish.

Priced at around US$2,000 (S$3,139), the AgVa ventilator is a fraction of the price of conventional ventilators, which go for more than US$10,000.

India, like most countries, has a critical shortage of beds and ventilators for its 1.3 billion people. The South Asian nation has so far reported more than 1,600 cases and 38 deaths from Covid-19.



To boost preparedness for a surge in cases, the Indian government has banned the export of coronavirus-linked medical exports, including ventilators.


The AgVa plant near the capital New Delhi has been given permission to work flat out to make what could be a key weapon when India has to fully confront the pandemic.

The makers say the AgVa - which weighs just 3.5 kilograms - will help move less critical patients back to their homes as their machine is easy to transport and install, and needs low power.

"In case you want to convert a hotel into an ICU, you can simply put this device and start working as it doesn't require other infrastructure," said Vaish.


Maruti Suzuki, India's biggest passenger car maker, has pledged to help AgVa ramp up production after the government called on all auto firms to contribute to the anti-coronavirus effort.

Seeing people queue for life-support equipment at the All India Institute for Medical Science in Delhi in 2016 convinced Vaish and Agrawal that there was an acute need for a cheap and portable ventilator.

"ICU care is very expensive. In the private sector, even the richest of rich can't afford it for a long time," said Vaish.

They avoided expensive imported parts to keep the cost low, Agrawal added.

With its cash-starved health system, India has only around 40,000 ventilators, and experts who have seen the coronavirus crisis explode in Europe have warned this could become a catastrophic shortage for India.

R.V. Asokan, secretary general of the Indian Medical Association, said the AgVa portable ventilator was the kind of innovation needed to fill health gaps.

"It is a basic model which will serve in the current scenario as it is a straightforward oxygenation device," said Asokan, who added that it would help Covid-19 patients but not those who have had transplants and other major surgeries.

Sunita Sharma, whose son was hospitalised for five years with a crippling nerve condition, was given one of the machines for free.

"My husband and I had to take turns to stay with him at the hospital and that affected our lives," Sharma told Agence France-Presse.

"I was devastated when the doctors told me my son would have to spend the rest of his life on a ventilator bed.

"At least now I can stay home to take care of him and the rest of the household."

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/s...tor-from-india-helps-hospitals-in-virus-fight

 

[khansaheeb]

How Patients Die After Contracting COVID-19, The New Coronavirus Disease : Goats and SodaMost cases of the illness are characterized as mild, with symptoms similar to those of a common cold or the flu. But there have been over 1,300 deaths.



How COVID-19 Kills: The New Coronavirus Disease Can Take A Deadly Turn
February 14, 20201:07 PM ET
Heard on Weekend Edition Sunday

AFP via Getty Images
Updated on March 17 at 6:43 p.m. ET:

Thousands of people have now died from COVID-19 — the name for the disease caused by the coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, China.
According to the World Health Organization, the disease is relatively mild in about 80% of cases.
What does mild mean?
And how does this disease turn fatal?

The first symptoms of COVID-19 are pretty common with respiratory illnesses — fever, a dry cough and shortness of breath, says Dr. Carlos del Rio, a professor of medicine and global health at Emory University who has consulted with colleagues treating coronavirus patients in China and Germany. "Some people also get a headache, sore throat," he says. Fatigue has also been reported — and less commonly, diarrhea. It may feel as if you have a cold. Or you may feel that flu-like feeling of being hit by a train.

The Coronavirus Outbreak
What you should know
Doctors say these patients with milder symptoms should check in with their physician to make sure their symptoms don't progress to something more serious, but they don't require major medical intervention.

But the new coronavirus attacks the lungs, and in about 20% of patients, infections can get more serious. As the virus enters lung cells, it starts to replicate, destroying the cells, explains Dr. Yoko Furuya, an infectious disease specialist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

"Because our body senses all of those viruses as basically foreign invaders, that triggers our immune system to sweep in and try to contain and control the virus and stop it from making more and more copies of itself," she says.


Goats and Soda
MAP: Confirmed Cases Of Wuhan Coronavirus
Del Rio says that these symptoms can also make it harder for the lungs to get oxygen to your blood, potentially triggering a cascade of problems. "The lack of oxygen leads to more inflammation, more problems in the body. Organs need oxygen to function, right? So when you don't have oxygen there, then your liver dies and your kidney dies," he says. Lack of oxygen can also lead to septic shock.

The most severe cases — about 6% of patients — end up in intensive care with multi-organ failure, respiratory failure and septic shock, according to a February report from the WHO. And many hospitalized patients require supplemental oxygen. In extreme cases, they need mechanical ventilation — including the use of a sophisticated technology known as ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), which basically acts as the patient's lungs, adding oxygen to their blood and removing carbon dioxide. The technology "allows us to save more severe patients," Dr. Sylvie Briand, director of the WHO's pandemic and epidemic diseases department, said at a press conference In February.

Many of the more serious cases have been in people who are middle-aged and elderly — Furuya notes that our immune system gets weaker as we age. She says for long-term smokers, it could be even worse because their airways and lungs are more vulnerable. People with other underlying medical conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes or chronic lung disease, have also proved most vulnerable. Furuya says those kinds of conditions can make it harder for the body to recover from infections.

"Of course, you have outliers — people who are young and otherwise previously healthy who are dying," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NPR's 1A show. "But if you look at the vast majority of the people who have serious disease and who will ultimately die, they are in that group that are either elderly and/or have underlying conditions."

Estimates for the case fatality rate for COVID-19 vary depending on the country. But data from both China and Lombardy, Italy, show the fatality rate starts rising for people in their 60s. In Lombardy, for instance, the case fatality rate for those in their 60s is nearly 3 percent. It's nearly 10 percent for people in their 70s and more than 16 percent for those in their 80s.


Goats and Soda
Why The World Cares More About The New Coronavirus Than The Flu
Del Rio notes that it's not just COVID-19 that can bring on multi-organ failure. Just last month, he saw the same thing in a previously healthy flu patient in the U.S. who had not gotten a flu shot.

"He went in to a doctor. They said, 'You have the flu — don't worry.' He went home. Two days later, he was in the ER. Five days later, he was very sick and in the ICU" with organ failure, del Rio says. While it's possible for patients who reach this stage to survive, recovery can take many weeks or months.

In fact, many infectious disease experts have been making comparisons between this new coronavirus and the flu and common cold, because it appears to be highly transmissible.

"What this is acting like — it's spreading much more rapidly than SARS [severe acute respiratory syndrome], the other coronavirus, but the fatality rate is much less," Fauci told 1A. "It's acting much more like a really bad influenza."

What experts fear is that, like the flu, COVID-19 will keep coming back year after year. But unlike the flu, there is no vaccine yet for the coronavirus disease.



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[Balbir]

^^ Can you cut shot your reply? It's too big to scroll. @khansaheeb

 

[khansaheeb]

^^ Can you cut shot your reply? It's too big to scroll. @khansaheeb

is this better, shortened for you?

 

[Krptonite]

How Patients Die After Contracting COVID-19, The New Coronavirus Disease : Goats and SodaMost cases of the illness are characterized as mild, with symptoms similar to those of a common cold or the flu. But there have been over 1,300 deaths.



How COVID-19 Kills: The New Coronavirus Disease Can Take A Deadly Turn
February 14, 20201:07 PM ET
Heard on Weekend Edition Sunday

AFP via Getty Images
Updated on March 17 at 6:43 p.m. ET:

Thousands of people have now died from COVID-19 — the name for the disease caused by the coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, China.
According to the World Health Organization, the disease is relatively mild in about 80% of cases.
What does mild mean?
And how does this disease turn fatal?

The first symptoms of COVID-19 are pretty common with respiratory illnesses — fever, a dry cough and shortness of breath, says Dr. Carlos del Rio, a professor of medicine and global health at Emory University who has consulted with colleagues treating coronavirus patients in China and Germany. "Some people also get a headache, sore throat," he says. Fatigue has also been reported — and less commonly, diarrhea. It may feel as if you have a cold. Or you may feel that flu-like feeling of being hit by a train.

The Coronavirus Outbreak
What you should know
Doctors say these patients with milder symptoms should check in with their physician to make sure their symptoms don't progress to something more serious, but they don't require major medical intervention.

But the new coronavirus attacks the lungs, and in about 20% of patients, infections can get more serious. As the virus enters lung cells, it starts to replicate, destroying the cells, explains Dr. Yoko Furuya, an infectious disease specialist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

"Because our body senses all of those viruses as basically foreign invaders, that triggers our immune system to sweep in and try to contain and control the virus and stop it from making more and more copies of itself," she says.


Goats and Soda
MAP: Confirmed Cases Of Wuhan Coronavirus
Del Rio says that these symptoms can also make it harder for the lungs to get oxygen to your blood, potentially triggering a cascade of problems. "The lack of oxygen leads to more inflammation, more problems in the body. Organs need oxygen to function, right? So when you don't have oxygen there, then your liver dies and your kidney dies," he says. Lack of oxygen can also lead to septic shock.

The most severe cases — about 6% of patients — end up in intensive care with multi-organ failure, respiratory failure and septic shock, according to a February report from the WHO. And many hospitalized patients require supplemental oxygen. In extreme cases, they need mechanical ventilation — including the use of a sophisticated technology known as ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), which basically acts as the patient's lungs, adding oxygen to their blood and removing carbon dioxide. The technology "allows us to save more severe patients," Dr. Sylvie Briand, director of the WHO's pandemic and epidemic diseases department, said at a press conference In February.

Many of the more serious cases have been in people who are middle-aged and elderly — Furuya notes that our immune system gets weaker as we age. She says for long-term smokers, it could be even worse because their airways and lungs are more vulnerable. People with other underlying medical conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes or chronic lung disease, have also proved most vulnerable. Furuya says those kinds of conditions can make it harder for the body to recover from infections.

"Of course, you have outliers — people who are young and otherwise previously healthy who are dying," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NPR's 1A show. "But if you look at the vast majority of the people who have serious disease and who will ultimately die, they are in that group that are either elderly and/or have underlying conditions."

Estimates for the case fatality rate for COVID-19 vary depending on the country. But data from both China and Lombardy, Italy, show the fatality rate starts rising for people in their 60s. In Lombardy, for instance, the case fatality rate for those in their 60s is nearly 3 percent. It's nearly 10 percent for people in their 70s and more than 16 percent for those in their 80s.


Goats and Soda
Why The World Cares More About The New Coronavirus Than The Flu
Del Rio notes that it's not just COVID-19 that can bring on multi-organ failure. Just last month, he saw the same thing in a previously healthy flu patient in the U.S. who had not gotten a flu shot.

"He went in to a doctor. They said, 'You have the flu — don't worry.' He went home. Two days later, he was in the ER. Five days later, he was very sick and in the ICU" with organ failure, del Rio says. While it's possible for patients who reach this stage to survive, recovery can take many weeks or months.

In fact, many infectious disease experts have been making comparisons between this new coronavirus and the flu and common cold, because it appears to be highly transmissible.

"What this is acting like — it's spreading much more rapidly than SARS [severe acute respiratory syndrome], the other coronavirus, but the fatality rate is much less," Fauci told 1A. "It's acting much more like a really bad influenza."

What experts fear is that, like the flu, COVID-19 will keep coming back year after year. But unlike the flu, there is no vaccine yet for the coronavirus disease.



Opinion
Opinion: The Way The U.S. Beat TB Could Be A Boon In Battling Coronavirus

Asia
Don't Nag Your Husband During Lockdown, Malaysia's Government Advises Women

Global Health
5 Key Facts Not Explained In White House COVID-19 Projections

National
Coast Guard Tells Cruise Ships With COVID-19 Cases To Stay Away From U.S. Ports

Health
Map: Tracking The Spread Of The Coronavirus In The U.S.

Kinda unsure of the point you're making, can you contract it a little?

 

[khansaheeb]

Kinda unsure of the point you're making, can you contract it a little?

I was just providing information as to why a ventilator is needed and this post explains how a Virus damages the lungs. It sort of answered my question but it shows that the ventilator only helps when the lungs are partially damaged and too much damage and the lungs can't be fixed and the ventilator is of no use. The article doesn't explain what the tipping point is and whether the lungs can repair themselves after the tissue scarring that occurs. Surely if our anti-bodies are doing the damage then the solution must either some immune repressant or some steroid type strengthening of the lungs.

 

[Rizwan Alam]

Great Job..