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Helping COVID-19 patients will become easier

Credit: Pavel Lyvov | RIAN

About 20% of patients with coronavirus have severe symptoms and complications. Many of them need artificial lung ventilation.

Ventilators are expensive and fairly rare equipment. Russia currently has about 40K of them. Moreover, during the pandemic, hospitals often have a shortage of ventilator valves: those are disposable, and manufacturers fail to handle the increased demand.

Russia is planning to replicate the Italian experience and begin to 3D print these valves, with Rosatom the apparent flagship producer. Rosatom–Additive Technologies, a unit of the state corporation, has already presented the first prototypes.

3D printing will boost the output of ventilator valves by many times, while the cost of production will decrease markedly. Better still, valves can be printed directly at hospitals, without wasting time and resources for delivery.

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