The ventilators for patients with respiratory failure due to COVID-19 designed by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) are pending verification by the Federal Commission Against Health Risks (COFEPRIS) to obtain the corresponding authorization to use them in patients.
Scientists from the Space Instrumentation Laboratory (LINX) of the Institute of Nuclear Sciences worked in the design of the prototype since the very first COVID-19 cases were registered in Mexico with the objective of developing an affordable , portable , and easy-to-make equipment.
Gustavo Medina Tanco
, the leader of LINX, explained in a statement released by the UNAM that the ventilator went through three stages in order to prove its functionality by being connected to an artificial lung in the clinics of the “Salvador Zubirán” Nationa Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition and those of the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER) .
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The report added that the last stage to which the portable ventilator was submitted was a test on human beings . It proved its capacity to keep a person alive. This test was done at the facilities of the UNAM’s School of Veterinary Medicine.
Medina Tanco said that, while they are waiting to fulfill COFEPRIS’s standards, the scientific community has not stopped working and is currently looking for support from companies specialized on the production and repairment of equipment, parts, and accessories for medical supplies to subsidize the component for the production of at least 100 of these ventilators .
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“The project includes everything, from head to toes: from the conception of the ventilator , the design , the prototypes , and the verification, to how to assemble a production plant and how to distribute them. Each ventilator would go along with spare parts and we have also considered helping in the training of human resources,” added the expert.
Recently, the UNAM delivered the necessary documents to the COFEPRIS so that it rules on the conditions to grant the license for the use of these ventilators in patients infected with COVID-19.
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