By David Himbara
Rwanda Polytechnic has announced that its engineers have made a ventilator. They say the final product will be released soon. The ventilator is the most sought-after machine in the global fight against Covid19.
Ventilators – most commonly found in hospital ICUs – are known as breathing machines. This is because these machines assist patients to breathe. The ventilator blows air into the lungs, helping to maintain proper levels of oxygen in the blood.
Because of low investments in health infrastructure in Africa, most countries on the continent have a few ventilators. And the machines are mostly in the capital city’s hospitals.
Mechanical ventilators are complex machines that don’t come cheap. The machines currently cost between US$25,000 and US$50,000, depending on configurability options and built-in safety features.
We wish Rwanda Polytechnic best of luck in developing a ventilator machine.
