NIGERIA AFRICA – the Russian war on the Ukraine has not made things any easier on anyone living in the Ukraine. There are hospitals and clinics that don’t have bed spaces for the people that need them as the bed spaces are taken up by the soldiers and civilians injured by the war. Apart from bed space one must take into account all the medical equipment and medical spaces that have been destroyed because of the constants air raids and bombings. The power cuts don’t help either as machinery cannot be operated when this happens.
So, the question will arise what happens when there are expectant mothers who need medical care or even Premature babies that need to be kept in the Neo Icu for a few days. It was an unlikely country that became the hero in this situation. As Kenya came through with a medical device that will help Neo natal ICU babies to survive the war-torn days. The Kenyans have managed to make a device that uses no power to keep babies breathing and will serve as a life support machine. Now medical aid groups are using a Kenyan-manufactured breathing device for premature babies that works without electricity, helping save vulnerable newborns in countries affected by conflict.
The staff at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga teaching and referral hospital have said that this device is a bubble of continuous positive airway pressure system. Or also known as BCPAP and is fully capable of bringing a massive amount of relief to a baby that maybe in distress.
Daisy Okech, a paediatric nurse at the hospital, said the device “helped us a great lot because before we had the machine there were babies who needed the CPAP, but we were not able to initiate. We were just using normal oxygen, but currently, we have seen that there are babies who improve very well when we initiate CPAP.”
The device is known to continuously deliver pressurized oxygen making it a lot easier for babies in any form of respiratory distress to breath. Revital health care, a manufacturer in Kenya’s Kilifi County, and the US-based Vayu Global Health Foundation took on mass production of the devices this year. Revital’s technical director, Krupali Shah, said the bubble CPAP just needs a pressured source of oxygen, such as a cylinder, to function.
Shah commented that “Once you have continuous 100% oxygen flowing in the blender, which is where the magic of the entire device is and is, literally, where the magic happens, it’s able to pull ambient air from the outside as well, you can adjust the oxygen concentration between 30-100 before delivery to the baby. The blended air can be filtered, humidified, breathed in by the patient and breathed out. There is also a pressure generator jar which controls the pressure and keeps the baby’s lungs open.”
The bCPAP devices are available for about $400 in Kenya. The system is being used in at least 20 countries in Africa, as well as Belgium and the United States. Nearly 1 million infants die annually from respiratory problems in low- and middle-income countries, according to the World Health Organization. Advocates say more of the lifesaving machines are needed around the world.
