From developing reusable aerosol boxes for doctors to non-invasive emergency ventilator with exhale disinfector for government hospitals in the State, the National Institute of Technology-Calicut (NIT-C) has been contributing to the fight against COVID-19 spread.
An NIT-C team led by Sajith V., head of the School of Materials Science and Engineering (SMSE), developed a non-invasive emergency ventilator with exhale disinfector. “Usually the exhaled air of COVID-19 patients using non-invasive ventilators will be infected and needs to be filtered before expelling into the atmosphere. In the ventilator developed by NIT-C, the exhaled air of the COVID-19 patient is bubbled through soap solution to disinfect it. The disposal of conventional viral filter which contains viruses being a major challenge, the use of soap solution-based exhale disinfector is a simple solution,” he said.
A reusable aerosol box already developed by NIT-C for frontline medical professionals when used along with the ventilator can also control the spread of viruses in the air. The aerosol box would help doctors during the management of patients, said Dr. Sajith.
The prototype of the ventilator was demonstrated before the doctors of the Kozhikode Government Medical College on Monday. Based on their suggestions, the prototype is being modified. The NIT-C team is also working on a mechanism for automatically varying the breath rate of the respirator based on feedback from patients.
The components used for the product are readily available in the shops and the product costs about ₹7,000. The non-invasive ventilator can also be used for patients during their transportation.
A basic model was developed by Arun Kumar and team at the Technology Business Incubator of NIT-C. He was also in the process of making a device for testing nasal air filters, at the applied nano engineering lab of the SMSE, which has been modified to an emergency ventilator system.