Vent-I, the Local-Made COVID-19 Fighter
BANDUNG, itb.ac.id - ITB held Studium Generale KU 4078 on Wednesday, January 20, 2021, presented the Chief of Indonesian Portable Ventilator Team (Vent-I), Dr. Ir. Syarif Hidayat. In this lecture, Syarif discussed Vent-I, an original ventilator made in Indonesia to save people with COVID-19. Vent-I was born by the collaboration between the Salman Mosque Foundation, ITB, and Padjajaran University (Unpad).
As it is known, the symptoms of COVID-19 make human alveoli malfunctioning so that the patients cannot breathe oxygen, resulting in organ failure. Furthermore, Dr. Syarif explained that it took a month to pass the test for the ventilator. Several tests were being conducted, such as endurance testing, safety, and so on.
Syarif admitted that Vent-I's manufacture and development involved many MSMEs, starting from the production of casings, hoses, and other components. Some of the main components of Vent-I are produced in Polman, while the assembly is carried out in Polban, PT Dirgantara Indonesia, and Kudus.
"We had run out of loan money of up to Rp. 100 million, but we cannot produce a suitable ventilator. Finally, with a friend's suggestion, we raised funds from the community and unexpectedly we were able to raise IDR 12 billion. The funds are almost equivalent to the manufacture of 1000 ideal ventilators,” he said.
The Quality Control test took place at Masjid Salman ITB, involving 100 people. After the QC test, Vent-I is getting sterilized, packaged, and distributed to hospitals. Till July 2020, from the public funds obtained, Syarif and his team distributed 1000 ventilators to 277 hospitals in 34 provinces in Indonesia, thanks to the public funds that involved 2000 donors and 54 agencies.
In January 2021, PT Panasonic Health Care officially manufactured Vent-I, making a record that is the first history that domestic products can be produced by foreign companies (Japan).
Reporter: Afif Naufal Harman (Water Resources Engineering and Management, 2017)
Translator : Billy Akbar Prabowo (Metallurgical Engineering 2020)
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