THE ROLE OF VENTILATORS

VENTILATORS

CREATE TIME

In most uses apart from general anesthesia, ventilators mainly create time. Time for the patient's body and the attending doctors to fight and beat an infection. That might not sound earth-shattering at first, but it makes the difference between life and death.

Vents create time

COMMON INDICATIONS FOR VENTILATOR

USE:

General anesthesia during surgical procedures
Viral infections: Covid-19, SARS, MERS, Influenza, West Nile etc.
Bacterial infections
Pneumonia
Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)
Premature lung development (babies)
Severe heart disease
Multiorgan failure
Acute asthma
Apnea
Acute lung injury
Hypotension
Coma
Sepsis
Stroke
Neuromuscular diseases
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
...

VENTILATION BASICS

There are two basic principles for ventilation: Invasive and non-invasive. Invasive ventilation requires intubation (a tube inserted through the mouth and then into the airway), while non-invasive ventilation is applied with face masks or nasal masks.

For a crisis ventilator, the ability to provide both invasive and non-invasive ventilation increases versatility and usability.

CORONAVIRUS INFECTIONS AND VENTILATION

There's one crucial detail that is often overlooked when we talk about Covid-19 and ventilation:

During the outbreaks of the novel Corona virus' close relatives SARS and MERS, the share of infected people requiring ventilation was more than five times higher than during this pandemic.

In this regard, we were really lucky with Covid-19. As crazy as that sounds.

Less than 5% of the people infected with the novel Coronavirus need ventilation. But that low percentage already completely overwhelmed the ventilation capacity in many countries.

Now imagine a five times higher percentage.

Vent uses

Vent basics

Corona infect. and vent

PNEUMONIA AND VENTILATION

About 1 million children and even more adults die from pneumonia each year. The global numbers have been falling, but Pneumonia is still the leading cause of death in children younger than 5 years.

Pneumonia can be caused by bacteria, viruses and fungi. The treatment options vary depending on the type of infection. Antibiotics for example can be very effective in pneumonia caused by bacteria.

Ventilators alone don't cure pneumonia. But every single patient who died from pneumonia would have needed a ventilator. Access to ventilation would have massively increased their chance to survive the infection. The majority of pneumonia victims never get that chance.

Pneumonia and vent

RISE OF ZOONOTIC AND

INSECT-BORNE DISEASES

Three of the seven types of coronaviruses infecting humans have emerged since 2002. Bats alone are expected to carry more than 5000 different Corona viruses. This is not a new fact, but cases of zoonotic infections (transmissions from animal to human) are on the rise. And this trend is unlikely to stop.

Global warming is one of the contributing factors. It also promotes the documented spread of insect transmitted diseases like West Nile Virus, Chikengunya, Dengue and others into regions that did not have to deal with them before.

Epidemics and pandemics have plagued humanity since antiquity. And they won't die out. After Covid-19, there will be others.

But today we can actively fight infectious diseases and win. For most of human history, that wasn't the case. The most striking thing about recent medical progress is its pace, also in the area of infectious diseases like Covid-19. New technologies are massively speeding up the development of vaccines and other treatments.

We will ultimately win the fight against Covid-19 and other new diseases that will come after it. One way (vaccines) or the other (treatments). That is one of the points where ventilators come into play. Because the world's doctors need all the tools we can give them to save as many patients as possible while the scientists develop the weapons to beat the infections.

Rise of diseases

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