Coronavirus: As ventilators fall short, IIT Hyderabad comes up with Bag Valve Mask as alternative

As we all know the Coronavirus is something that is associated with respiratory ailment where a person suffered from it needs breathing during hospitalisation, which can be assisted by ventilators. However, there is a shortage of ventilators in India.

According to a recent study, the John Hopkins University estimated that India would need up to 1 million ventilators in coming days to deal with Covid-19 situation as the number of cases being increased at brisk pace. Despite there is no clear picture of number of ventilators that India possess in combine with private and government hospitals however, it is estimated that there are less than the 50,000 ventilators in India, which could not serve the purpose.

Before the situation is worsenned, a team of IIT-Hyderabad professors has come forward for adopting bag valve masks as alternatives to ventilators. According to IIT-H director Professor BS Murthy, "the bag valve mask is already in consideration in other countries due to its portability, utility in areas which have no power supply and cost-effectiveness,"

However, as the Big valve masks are currently hand-powered and cannot be put to continuous use as a ventilator, it needs redesigning to get power from a battery.

"Our estimate of the cost is that it can be manufactured for less than Rs 5000, or one-hundredth the cost of a conventional machine. The cost of manufacturing 6 million of these devices will be probably less than that of the inadequate number of 60,000 conventional machines mentioned above," Professor Murthy said.

He said that the IIT Hyderabad team has proposed to central government to set up task force for the production of these alternative devices in place of Conventional ventilators at industrial scale.

On the other hand, a Noida-based start-up company has also built a portable - plug-to-use - ventilator, which does not need installation like a conventional one. They are reportedly set to manufacture around 20,000 portable ventilators to deal with Covid-19 situation in India