Iranian Researchers Develop Easy-to-Build Ventilator for Coronavirus Patients

The system was redesigned and manufactured by the University of Tehran researchers, including Hadi Moradi and Seyed Kamaleddin Setarehdan, in cooperation with Morteza Behzad Nasab from Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute as well as a team from MIT University supervised by professor Slocum.

The easy production of the ventilator system is among its advantages. Also, its design has been provided to everyone in the world as open source so that any specialist can develop and prepare it for local use.

In relevant remarks earlier this month, Head of Iran’s Currency Savings Trust in Patients Treatment Mehdi Yousefi announced that the country was now able to produce 40 ventilators each day to be used at medical centers in the fight against coronavirus.

“We have 8-folded production of ventilators and reached 40 machines from 5 machines (since the start of coronavirus epidemic),” Yousefi told reporters via video conference.

He said that 85% of anti-coronavirus health and hygiene products supplied to the universities of medical sciences across the country were home-made, adding that production of masks in Iran has 3-folded compared to the pre-coronavirus era.

Yousefi also underlined plans to deliver 4,000 new ICU beds to the hospitals across Iran by the yearend (late March 2021).

Iranian health ministry announced on Monday that 1,617 more cases of coronavirus infection have been identified in the country, adding that the virus has killed 4,585 people so far.

“1,617 more patients infected with COVID-19 virus have been identified in the country since yesterday, increasing the total number of coronavirus patients in Iran to 73,303 people” Iranian Health Ministry Spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said on Monday.

He added that 4,585 people have lost their lives due to infection to the virus, including 111 in the past 24 hours.

Jahanpour, meantime, said that 45,983 infected people have been treated and dismissed from hospital, wishing rapid recovery for 3,877 patients who are in critical conditions.

He noted that 275,427 coronavirus diagnosis tests have been carried out in the country so far.

Iranian Health Minister Saeed Namaki stressed on April 7 effective measures to control coronavirus epidemic, expressing the hope that the disease would be controlled in Iran by late May.

“At present, the country is in the phase of disease management and we should not imagine that we have reached the harness and control phase. Today is the time for full-fledged combat against the virus. God willing, we will control coronavirus by late May. The virus should be controlled in the minimum possible time,” Namaki said, addressing the Iranian legislators in an open session of the parliament in Tehran.

He noted that at least 30% to 50% of hospital beds are still vacant across Iran and nearly 15,000 beds are ready to keep the patients who are recovering from coronavirus disease.

“We have now moved down to tank 6th in terms of deaths,” Namaki said, adding that the country’s situation in treatment of patients will improve in the next few days.

The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting approximately all countries and territories around the world. The virus was first reported in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. It has so far killed more than 114,900 people and infected over 1.86 million others globally.

The Iranian foreign ministry declared that despite Washington’s claims of cooperation to transfer drugs to Iran via the new Swiss-launched payment mechanism, the US is troubling the process amid the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Although US claims that medicines and medical equipment are not under sanctions, they have practically blocked the transfer of Iran’s financial resources in other countries into the Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA), Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi said.

As the death toll from the virus surges, Iran intensifies its preventive safety measures. Closures of schools and most universities have been extended until late April.

The government also imposed travel restrictions, specially on Iran’s North, which is among the red zones. The country has also adopted strict digital health control procedures at airports to spot possible infections.

Namaki announced last month that a new national mobilization plan would be implemented across the country to fight against the coronavirus epidemic and more effectively treat patients.

Namaki said that the plan will include all the 17,000 health centers and the 9,000 medical and clinical centers in all cities, suburban areas and villages.

He added that the plan will include home quarantine, noting that infected people will receive the necessary medicines and advice, but they are asked to stay at home.

Namaki said that people with a more serious condition will stay at the hospitals, adding that the public places will be disinfected, the entries of infected towns and cities will be controlled to diagnose and quarantine the infected cases.

He added that the necessary equipment and facilities have been provided, expressing the hope that the epidemic would be curbed.

According to the latest statistics of Health Ministry, the number of medical laboratories to test coronavirus infection has reached over 90 across the country.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says Iran's response to the virus has so far been up to the mark. Still, it says the US sanctions are a big challenge, and Washington would be complicit in the rising death toll in Iran if it would not remove its sanctions.

The World Health Organization has considered priorities in combating coronavirus and Islamic Republic of Iran obeys and follows up priorities as defined by WHO.

The WHO is dispatching separate delegations to all countries.

Source:FarsNEWS