Yusuf Bilesanmi has won the Africa Prize for Engineering for developing an efficient and working ventilator that does not require electricity and uses way less oxygen to carry out the same function as a regular ventilator.
The Lagos State University graduate owns Shifa Technology, the company that created the ShiVent system which allows non-specialized workers to treat patients with coronavirus.
The team comprising of Yusuf Bilesanmi, Ricardo Nascimento, Dr Yusuf Shittu, Gaurav Nanajkar and Pawel Nycz designed the ventilator with four key features: Simple to use- by the average health workers and takes only 30 minutes of training; Low-Cost, that is it can be produced at a very small fraction of the price of the average ventilator; Non-Electric, making it suitable for hospital settings with unreliable power supply; Oxygen-Efficient, requiring almost as little as a third of the average oxygen consumption of High Flow Oxygen systems.
ShiVent has been tested at Loughborough’s National Centre for Sports and Exercise Medicine (NCSEM) and the Leicester Royal Infirmary Hospital.
It has also had a preliminary clinical functionality test at Glenfield Hospital.
A shipment of five units has been sent to Lagos, Nigeria, with more ventilators sent to Pune, in India. Following trials in Lagos and Pune, the team plans to roll out the system in Sub Saharan Africa and Asia and is in the process of exploring opportunities in South America as well.
ShiVent is designed for under-resourced areas where mechanical ventilators are scarce and expensive, with unreliable electricity supply and limited specialist knowledge.
The ShiVent is a simple, low-cost ventilatory alternative which does not depend on electricity and is widely replicable.
