Africa Press-Nigeria:
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) on Wednesday unveiled emergency ventilators produced by its researchers to support government on the fight against coronavirus pandemic.
The Chief of Air, Air Marshal Sadiq Abubakar, who unveiled the ventilators in Kaduna, said it had undergone clinical trials using dogs and pigs to determine its efficacy.
He said tht a team of NAF personnel and researchers from partner institutions commenced work on developing the NAF emergency ventilators in April.
”Within three weeks, two prototypes were developed and I was in Kaduna to witness the demonstration.
“Having seen the progress made, it became necessary for the prototypes to undergo animal testing to ascertain its capacity for use on patients with respiratory illness.
“Accordingly, the Nigerian Air Force partnered with the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria Faculty of Veterinary Medicine to test the effectiveness of the ventilator using both dog and pig models.
“The objective of the animal testing was to demonstrate the capacity of the NAF Emergency Ventilator to ventilate patients with respiratory disease including Acute Lungs injury and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.”
Abubakar added that the test was also necessary to validate the efficacy of Assist Ventilation Mode where the ventilator detects a breath from a patient and synchronizes the equipment with the breath of the patient being treated.
