Low-cost Ventilators designed at Loughborough Uni to be sent to Nigeria

Low-cost, non-electric ventilators designed by Loughborough Uni engineers could help the fight against Covid-19 across the globe.

The team behind the ShiVent system say it's simple to use and Oxygen-Efficient and will be sent to Nigeria this month for testing. The system has already been tested at Loughborough's National Centre for Sports and Exercise Medicine and the Leicester Royal Infirmary.

In a few weeks five units will be sent to Lagos, with more ventilators heading for Pune, in India, shortly after. Once these trials are complete the team say they'll roll the system out in Sub Saharan Africa and Asia.

Project leader Dr Yusuf Bilesanmi said "ShiVent is designed for under-resourced areas where mechanical ventilators are scarce and expensive, with unreliable electricity supply and limited specialist knowledge.

“Currently, Lagos uses around 400 cylinders of oxygen a day, at 15 litres of oxygen per minute (lpm).

“The ShiVent only requires between 5 lpm to 12 lpm depending on the patient's respiratory condition.

“With a global surge in Covid-19 cases, many countries’ healthcare systems lack the capacity to tackle this new challenge. Nigeria has as few as 288 mechanical ventilators serving almost 200 million people.

“The ShiVent is a simple, low-cost ventilatory alternative which does not depend on electricity and is widely replicable.”

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