Philips, a health technology company has introduced a new ventilator to the Kenyan market as the country faces shortage of the equipment in the face of rising COVID-19 cases.
As of June 2020, the Ministry of Health had indicated that Kenya had only 189 ventilators countrywide to treat critical care COVID-19 patients.
Philips has scaled up production of its new Respironics E30 ventilator as a readily available ventilation alternative during the COVID-19 crisis in situations where fully featured critical care ventilators are not available. The introduction of the new ventilator comes at a time that Kenya is grappling with lack of capacity to manufacture ventilators locally. Key challenges have been financial constraints and lack of vital parts needed to make the ventilators functional.
Locally produced ventilator prototypes by Kenyan innovators are yet to be approved by the Pharmacy and Poisons Board which is the body mandated to verify and approve medical devices in Kenya. The Respironics E30 ventilator has been verified and approved by the Board.
“The E30 ventilator is fit for purpose, specifically made for COVID-19 management. It is not a full-featured, critical care ICU ventilator, but has been developed keeping the needs of healthcare workers and COVID-19 patients in mind while also complying with medical device quality standards,” said Dr. Muthoni Ntonjira, Country Manager, Philips Kenya.
“Our hope is that this ventilator will help to free-up ICU ventilators for use in treating the most critically ill patients and support efforts being made by our Government and our clinical workforce.”
The Respironics E30 ventilator features include the ability to use the device for both invasive and non-invasive procedures, quick set-up and simple operations. This allows healthcare providers to have a wide range of skill sets to treat and monitor patients in clinical and field-hospital settings, the ability to accept high-flow oxygen and visual and audible alarms to provide pertinent therapy information to healthcare providers.
Other features include recommended circuit set-ups which contain a bacterial/viral filter to minimise exposure for healthcare providers when used invasively or noninvasively. These have sample accessories that may be used such as a full-face, non-vented (without integrated leak) mask, or helmet and on-screen respiratory monitoring to measure and display vital ventilation type parameters.
The parameters include pressure, tidal volume, respiratory rate, leak, and oxygen saturation, enabling clinicians to evaluate therapy effectiveness.
“As COVID-19 continues to spread in Kenya, healthcare providers are working diligently to treat soaring numbers of patients at a time when there are too few ventilators to provide care,” said Prof. Wangari Siika, Associate Professor in Anaesthesia and Intensive care at Agha Khan University medical college .The ventilator is an essential equipment for critically ill patients who suffer from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) which makes it difficult for them to efficiently transfer oxygen from damaged lung tissue to their blood. COVID-19 patients usually display these symptoms.
If you are in an environment where there is a high concentration of viral particles in the air, such as poorly ventilated closed spaces, you are most likely to get infected, but only if you stay there for a long time.
A study carried out by Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) researchers in July shows that Kenya needs an additional 1511 ICU beds and 1609 ventilators within six months to 374 ICU beds and 472 ventilators within 18 months to absorb caseloads due to COVID-19.
