Easier access to mechanical ventilation worldwide: an urgent need for low income countries, especially in face of the growing COVID-19 crisis

That positive pressure mechanical ventilation can save lives was proved during the poliomyelitis epidemics of the 1950s. Since that time there has been a growing increase in the use of ventilatory support, and it has been closely associated with the development of critical care medicine [1]. Positive pressure ventilation can be life-saving in patients with acute severe hypoxaemia that is refractory to more conservative measures. In patients with severe cardiopulmonary distress for whom the effort of breathing is intolerable, mechanical ventilation substitutes for the action of the respiratory muscles [1]. Combining easy-to-build noninvasive ventilator and open-source hardware description, may allow for adequate availability of ventilators to patients in low- and middle-income countries. This is urgently needed in the growing COVID-19 epidemic. https://bit.ly/3f8ZkUR