A low-cost emergency care ventilator prototype has been developed by the staff and students of the University of the South Pacific to be used in local hospitals to support COVID-19 patients.
Ventilators are complex, expensive machines used to support COVID-19 critically ill patients by forcing high oxygen content air into their lungs.
The commercial hospital-grade ventilators are priced between $50,000 to $100,000.
The motivation behind the USP engineering team to design and build a ventilator that could assist during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond was the limited availability of ventilators in Fiji.
The ventilator is designed to survive extreme treatment and harsh environment. The exterior casing is made of welded stainless-steel plate with both sides being ventilated by extraction fans.
The project was funded by the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie.
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