Coronavirus: Faced with the pandemic, the world is trying to make up for the lack of respirators

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Respiratory assistance is essential to treat the most serious cases of coronavirus. To make up for the lack of respirators, an Italian doctor transformed diving masks. The idea is now taken up in a Belgian hospital.

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The World Health Organization urges states to equip themselves with respirators. But while waiting for industrial production to run at full speed, ingenious handymen have transformed diving masks from the Decathlon brand into breathing apparatus. The raw material is abundant, it is found in all sports stores. Decathlon says it has 10,000 in stock and declares itself ready to make them available if necessary. However, it is necessary to modify the mask to adapt it to the tubes used in hospitals. A problem to which a retired Italian doctor, Doctor Renato Favero, has found the solution.

The doctor contacted the Italian company Isinnova, specialist in innovative projects. She was therefore able to design the missing part to connect the diving mask to the respirator tube using a 3D printer.

Followers in Belgium

The idea has been emulated in Belgium where the Erasme hospital in Brussels has also just developed a prototype from the same diving mask connected to a series of filters and tips connected to a machine that provides pressurized air.

The patient can breathe better without resorting to intubation. This mask is, according to Frédéric Bonnier, physiotherapist in intensive care Erasmus, more comfortable than those in hospitals, but it will be necessary to wait for its approval before seeing it replicated in thousands of copies.

Israeli high-tech mobilizes

In Israel, the high-tech sector has also gone to war against the coronavirus, reports our correspondent in Jerusalem, Michel Paul . The country only has around 2,800 respirators available, according to the Ministry of Health. It is Rafael, one of the arms leaders in Israel, who is mobilizing to develop low-cost devices as quickly as possible with the engineers who have developed the Iron Dome anti-missile missile system.

For Erel Margalit, the current boss of the JVP cybertechnology incubator, it is necessary to act quickly and above all to pool resources. “ Governments cannot work alone. They have to work together because the virus is spreading. The strategies used in one country successfully could work elsewhere as well, but information must be shared in real time , ”he explains.

Immense needs in the United States

The needs are also immense and initiatives are multiplying in the United States. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has decided to buy thousands of hand-held respirators similar to the one used by firefighters (AirOx) for first aid. The problem is that you need a hand to activate the pump 24 hours a day to ventilate the patient.

The governor plans to call on the National Guard to carry out this mission, but admits that this solution can only be a last resort. He still claims 30,000 respirators from the federal government. President Trump continues to believe that Governor Cuomo is over-dramatizing the situation.

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• Coronavirus
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