Saving Preemies
August 27, 2015
A medical device built with aquarium pumps saves lives in developing countries.
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Transcript
BOB HIRSHON (host):
A premature baby receives positive airflow from a low-cost CPAP machine. (Kawaza, et al., PLoSOne/CC BY-4.0)
A low-cost answer to premature infant death. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.
Each year, hundreds of thousands of premature infants die because they don’t have access to six-thousand dollar CPAP machines to help them breath. That’s why Rice University bioengineer Rebecca Richards-Kortum led a team of students who designed their own version that costs just $150, and uses inexpensive aquarium pumps to provide airflow.
REBECCA RICHARDS-KORTUM (Rice University):
They just did some really good basic engineering in how do you build a device that does exactly what it needs to do, but not any more.
HIRSHON:
A study in Malawi showed the machines increased infant survival rates from 24% to 65%.
RICHARDS-KORTUM:
And that’s actually very similar to the improvement in survival that was seen when CPAP was introduced in the United States in the 1970s.
HIRSHON:
I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.
