Covid: TN hospital designs low cost respirator

Chennai: Meenakshi Hospital, a multi specialty hospital in Thanjavur and a part of Meenakshi Mission Hospital and Research Centre, Madurai, has designed a ‘cost-effective purifying respirator system that provides 100 per cent protection from Covid-19 infection’ for surgeons and other healthcare professionals in operation theatres.

According to a press release, this ingenious design, the first in the world, is named Tanjore Air Purifying Respirator (TAPR). Essentially, the system securely delivers compressed medical grade compressed air, already available in operation theaters for administering anesthesia and operating pneumatic drills, to healthcare professionals through a hood.

A TAPR unit can be set up at as low as Rs 3,000 per person. In comparison, the conventional air purifying system, known as Power Air Purifying Respirator (PAPR), costs Rs 1.2 lakh per person.

Dr S GuruShankar, chairman, Meenakshi Hospital, said, “Experts are of the opinion that the coronavirus is going to be there for a long time. Hence, the likelihood of a surgeon having to perform an elective surgery such as hip replacements or cataract extraction and other common, emergency surgeries on a patient who is infected with Covid-19 is going to be more. In this context, there is a need to provide personal protection equipment for all healthcare professionals who will be present in operation theatres during surgeries.”