UGANDA HAS SUCCESFULLY PRODUCED A LOW COST MEDICAL VENTILATOR PROTOTYPE TO FIGHT THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

BY MOSES SSERWANGA

Uganda has made a major break through in the fight against the global COVID -19 pandemic  after a team of scientists  led by Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe, Vice Chancellor, Makerere University designed  and produced a functional open design low cost medical ventilator engineering prototype to support management of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome caused by the coronavirus.

The low cost medical ventilator project is being undertaken by Makerere University acting through the Resilient Africa Network, a Project at the School of Public Health, Makerere University; and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation acting through Kiira Motors Corporation,according to Prof. Nawangwe.

Prof. Nawamgwe in social media posts stated that a team of Ugandan scientists and engineers from Kiira Motors Corporation (KMC) have registered a major breakthrough by designing, producing and successfully undertaking bench tests using artificial lungs on the low cost medical ventilator prototype paving way for the next stage of validation. 

Why test the medical ventilator prototypes

“The main objective was to assess whether the ventilator’s mechanical function is per expectation in terms of ‘Breathe-in-and-out’ ratios, air pressure, and tidal volume. The prototype performed excellently well on all parameters, behaving like any standard ventilator on the market, “ the Vice Chancellor stated.

Two weeks ago, Makerere University, Resilient Africa Network, Kiira Motors, and the Ministry of Science and Technology innovations set out to develop a low cost ventilator to fill a critical gap in the event that COVID-19 cases in the country and the region increased dramatically. 

Prof.Nawangwe  ,this week a team of Kiira Motors engineers working with Veterinarians will start the validation process by testing the ventilatoronanimals before proceeding to clinical trials. “This is an ethical requirement before any new treatment intervention is conducted in human beings. Animal tests will be led by a team from the College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity at Makerere,” the Vice Chancellor said.

Ventilator to be approved by National Drug Authority and Uganda National Bureau of Standards

Following successful validation process, the team will seek approval from National Drug Authority (NDA) for testing to begin in human beings.

According to Prof. Nawangwe , in two weeks’ time, the team will start Randomized Clinical Trials  (RCT) on human subjects, led by Anaesthesiologists and Epidemiologists from the College of Health Sciences, Makerere. The studies will commence with patients who are moderately ill, then scale to patients who are severely ill. These assessments will be conducted at the Uganda Heart Institute. Alongside all these tests, the engineering team will receive continuous feed-back to optimise the design. Thereafter, the team will seek pre-launch approval of the product from NDA and relevant quality certifications from UNBS, following which 40 ready-to-use units will be initially manufactured. The whole process is estimated to take 8-12 weeks.

“This ventilator will not only be handy for COVID-19 but will transform the country and the region’s capacity to provide decentralized critical care for patients with other serious conditions” the Vice Chancellor emphasized .

The Chief Engineer of the Project and Director Product Development, Kiira Motors Corporation, Mr. Richard Madanda said this was a major milestone for the country since the low cost medical ventilators  once approved will be used in hospital’s   Intensive Care Units , (ICUs) across the country to fight  the  COVID -19 pandemic . 

“ We undertook open technology assessment and adaptation . We have done tests about  the functionality and verification  of the ventilator  with clinicians and now we are proceeding  to do validation in clinical settings before we license the product and we produce at least 40 units for medical use across the country ,” Madanda explained.

The World Health Organization has declared Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) a pandemic that is rapidly spreading across the globe. There are over  one million COVID-19 confirmed cases, with 55 cases registered in Uganda. Critical COVID-19 cases once hospitalized and placed in the Intensive Care Unit for management require a respiratory assistive technology known as-a Ventilator. 

What is a medical ventilator 

A Medical Ventilator is a machine that provides mechanical ventilation by moving breathable air into and out of the lungs, to deliver breaths to a patient who is physically unable to breathe, or breathing insufficiently.  Uganda has 14 regional referral hospitals with 12 functional Intensive Care Units equipped with a total of 55 functional beds implying an estimated 55 ventilators in other words 1.3 beds and ventilators per million people.

Medical Analysts have projected increased global demand for ventilators resultant from the continual increase in severe COVID-19 cases.  Therefore, an increase in conventional ventilator production is very likely to fall short of global demand and with high associated cost. This is the reason why it is imperative to  have low cost affordable ventilators that can be manufactured locally.  And such a ventilator would bolster the country's surge capacity to provide critical care in the event of increased COVID-19 cases.

President Museveni welcomes venture

Officials said President Yoweri Museveni who is at the forefront in the national response to  stave off the Covid-19 pandemic has welcomed the  initiative and offered to support the production of ventilators locally for not only the benefit of the Ugandan people but the East African region and the rest of the world. At US$ 25,000 (FOB) (~UGX 93.7M) a piece, medical ventilators on the international market are prohibitively expensive.

The team is targeting a starting price point between US$ 1,000 (~UGX 3.7 Million) and US$ 3,000 (~UGX 11.2 Million) per low-cost medical ventilator produced in Uganda . In emergency situations like the one we are facing now, where countries are facing a shortage of ventilators, there is a need to demonstrate strength in terms of developing and providing local contingencies. The anticipation is that this low-cost ventilator will be utilized by the health ministry’s first responders to save lives at risk because of the coronavirus.

The production of such ventilators in Uganda will bolster the country's surge capacity to provide critical care in case the demand for such care increases even post the COVID-19 Pandemic.

 

The writer is a media and communications consultant and  Advocate of the High  Court of Uganda

msserwanga@gmail.com

KCCA AND CENTRAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD USE THE COVID-19 WINDOW TO FIX PUBLIC SERVICE INFRASTRUCTURE AND SYSTEMS

BY MOSES SSERWANGA

The outbreak of the global COVID- 19 pandemic  should present a unique window  for the Uganda government to fix many broken down public service systems while  promoting local manufacturing - starting with the Capital Kampala.  This is the time for both Kampala City  Council Authority (KCCA) working together with the Central government to restore order to what has become a chaotic public transport network in the Central Business District (CBD) and the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area (GKMA). 

KCCA , for starters ,  should repair all its pubic taxi and bus parks  starting with the old taxi park(which according to social media images looks like a cattle holding ground )-  to ensure that all the much needed public health amenities like clean running water, passenger shades and public convenience areas are functional and up to acceptable standards .

The renovations and any other public works should be undertaken while using locally sourced materials to promote the Buy Uganda Build Uganda (BUBU) policy.  Revamping public health facilities in the taxi and bus parks and elsewhere in the city , is particularly  important because virology scientists have stated that even if the threat of  the spread of  Covid- 19 infection curve is flattened ( contained)  specially in congested public places- such as taxi and bus parks, it could take up to two years to wipe out the virus .

So even when the curfew is lifted , there will still be a possibility of a second or third wave of the pandemic .  It is incumbent upon the authorities at KCCA to bite the bullet and restore sanity in its public holding areas perhaps the more reason President Yoweri Museveni listed the authority as a public ‘essential’ service provider and thus exempted from the lock down . 

Fast going forward, the KCCA management and the central government  should temporarily forget about  the Kampala voting bloc and take some decisive actions to streamline the flow of traffic  and  not allow  back the crazy boda bodas  in the  CBD together with the taxis -which in any case -should  stop four miles either side of the city .  Fuel efficient  buses should be introduced including electric ones to ferry passengers from the points where they are dropped off by the taxis and bodas and transport them to the city center to reduce on the congestion .

By operating a robust public transport system in Kampala , KCCA will help to greatly reduce on the massive pollution of the environment caused by second hand vehicles some older than the people who own them –with end of life technologies that affect the good health and general wellbeing of Kampala’s  estimated 4 million people.

The government owned Kiira Motors Corporation (KMC) has produced two validation executive 12 meter Kayoola electric buses at the UPDF’s Luwero Industries in Nakasongola and have since been deployed to provide shuttle services for dignitaries that attended the European Union Business Summit in Kampala recently.  The Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon. Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga just last month was also driven in the same Kayoola electric bus from the Jinja suspended bridge to Kiira Motors Vehicles plant in Mutai some 20 kilometers along the Jinja –Kamuli highway.

This clearly demonstrates that Uganda now has the capacity to produce and deploy on its roads electric and fuel efficient combustion engine buses   . The Minister of Science Technology and Innovation Dr. Elioda Tumwesigye and the  KMC management led by Prof. Sandy Stevens Tickodri-Togboa have stated that Kiira Motors now has the capacity to produce  locally- up to eight electric buses in a month. Government should commit to roll out some of these buses to sort out the mess that Kampala has come to be known for. 

Motor vehicles importation is ranked the second highest valued call on Uganda’s foreign exchange bill at 450Million US dollars, the first being petroleum products. Government’s  import substitution should be focused to the development of  interalia-Uganda’s automotive industry.

These interventions will stave off the country’s foreign exchange hemorrhage through importation of used vehicles and create many job opportunities across the automotive industry value chain.

The introduction of buses also require KCCA to put in place the necessary infrastructure  including specially designed lanes for buses in the short term as it prepares  to implement  the  wider Kampala Metropolitan Rapid Public Transport System. 

The writer is Media and Communications Consultant and Advocate of the High Court of Uganda

msserwanga@gmail.com