By Caribbean News Global contributor
HAVANA, Cuba, (teleSUR) — The Cuban Neuroscience Center (CNEURO) Monday announced it will have the first nationally produced lung ventilators for patients affected by COVID-19.
The devices will be built to also measure oxygen levels with a high support range without electricity that works on batteries.
“The national health system will receive 250 invasive and 250 non-invasive ventilators next October,” the CNEURO director Mitchell Valdes Sosa stated. “This will strengthen the country’s response capacity to COVID-19 and any type of disease,” he said.
At the start of the pandemic Cuba tried to buy lung ventilators from Swiss companies IMT Medial AG and Acutronic, but the US Vyaire Medical Co. acquired these companies in April.
Consequently, these companies suspended trade relations with the Caribbean nation in compliance with the laws of the US blockade imposed on Cuba.
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“Technological sovereignty allows us to guarantee the country’s health and to avoid any action of the blockade to prevent what we need from coming,” the CNEURO director said.
The Lung fans are being built with funds provided by the European Union (EU) the NGO MediCuba-Switzerland, and different campaigns undertaken by epidemiology and bio-engineering societies.
“To check their operation under close-to-real-life conditions, the devices will be tested on pigs over 50 kilograms. If tests are satisfactory, ventilators would receive certification from Cuban authorities,” the statement said.