Ventilator, Respirator and Project Praana

Presently world is suffering from coronavirus outbreak. Hospitals and Healthcare providers are facing a shortage of respirators and ventilators, two most important tools required for fighting this infection.

Let us try to understand the difference between the two and their utility.

What is a respirator?

Respirator mask like device, usually made up of gauze bangalore and is worn over the mouth or nose to prevent the inhalation of noxious substances for example poisonous gases or harmful droplets. Health Care professional wear these masks so that they do not get infected while working in closed environment like covid-19 isolation words. Respirators like N 95 are recommended for healthcare professionals so that they can keep themselves safe from infection.

Another type of respirator is known as PAPR or powered air purifying respirator which covers the whole head and uses a blower to filter impure air.

These respirators are an essential part of PPE or personal protective equipment kit.

The word respiration is derived from the Latin word respirare means to breathe or breathe out.

What is a ventilator?

Ventilator is a machine that helps a patient to breathe. This machine pumps oxygen carbon dioxide produced by a tube. 

The word ventilator can refer to oxygenation of the blood helping someone breathing using a mechanical ventilator.

Covid-19 is a respiratory disease which affects lungs causing inflammation or pneumonia which makes breathing difficult for the patient suffering from this disease. To overcome this breathing difficulty a ventilator is required by some patients with this kind of infection.

The word ventilator along with ventilate and ventilation comes from the Latin word ventilare which means to fan and is based on another word called ventus, which means wind.

What is project praana?

Indian Institute of Sciences Bengaluru has developed ventilator prototype in view of covid-19 crisis and according to calculation 0.00 6% of population will require Critical Care with ventilator. For a population of over 125 crores nearly 75000 patients might need ventilator access. The Global supply chain has been severely distracted due to this crisis.

Hence a group of scientists and students in Indian Institute Bengaluru have developed an indigenous ventilator prototype.

This prototype has a mass flow sensor and control system which accurately tells how much oxygen is flowing and what volume the patient is inhaling in one breath.

The team of Indian Institute of Sciences has been working to develop this ventilator by using parts from the local Automotive and RO water filter industries.

According to this team their plan is to make a pressurized mixture of medical grade Oxygen and compressed air and mix it using food grade containers and tubing systems found in domestic RO water filter. 

A Programmable Logic controller board and raspberry Pi computer will control the air pressure, the oxygen composition and flow characteristics.

ARUN JOSHI
SRI KRISHNA INSTITUTE FOR IAS/PCS COACHING

Cytokine storms (related to covid 19)

IMPORTANT CONCEPT FOR GK AND EXAMINATION

Many Diseases like  covid-19 and influenzas can be fatal due to an overactivation of the body’s immune system called a cytokine storm.

Cytokines are small proteins produced  by many different cells in the body, including those of the immune system (our defense system)  , where they coordinate the body’s response against infection and trigger inflammation.

The name ‘cytokine’ is derived from the Greek words for cell (cyto) and movement (kinos).

Many a times the body’s response to infection can go into overdrive. For example, when SARS -CoV-2 – the virus behind the covid-19 pandemic – enters the lungs, it initiates  an immune response, attracting immune cells to the region to attack the virus, resulting in localised inflammation. But in some patients, excessive or uncontrolled levels of cytokines are released which then activate more immune cells, resulting in hyperinflammation. This can seriously harm or even kill the patient.

inflammation is  a localized physical condition in which part of the body becomes reddened, swollen, hot, and often painful, especially as a reaction to injury or infection.

Cytokine storms are a common matter of complication not only of covid-19 and flu but of many respiratory diseases caused by coronaviruses such as SARS and MERS.

The phenomenon became more popularly known after the 2005 outbreak of the avian H5N1 influenza virus, also called  as “bird flu”, when the high fatality rate was linked to an out-of-control cytokine response.

When the immune system is fighting pathogens, cytokines send signals to  immune cells such as T-cells and macrophages to travel to the site of infection , so that it can be neutralized. In addition, cytokines activate those cells, stimulating them to produce more cytokines. Normally, this feedback loop regulated well  by the body. However, in some cases, the reaction becomes uncontrolled, and too many immune cells are activated.

The precise reason for this is not entirely understood but may be caused by an exaggerated response when the immune system encounters a new and highly pathogenic invader like nCoV 2019. Cytokine storms have potential to do significant damage to body tissues and organs. If a cytokine storm occurs in the lungs, for example, fluids and immune cells such as macrophages may accumulate and eventually block off the airways, potentially resulting in death.

ABOUT VIRUSES AND COVID -19

SRI KRISHNA INSTITUTE(IAS/PCS COACHING)

Viruses: Important factual information and COVID 19

" They live at the edge of life"( called as replicators)

"They don't reproduce, they just make their copies using the machinery of the host cell"

Viruses are submicroscopic infectious agents, which can replicate or make copies inside the living cell called as host cells.

Dmitri ivanovsky(1892) described them as non-bacterial pathogens and Martinus beijerinck discovered TMV(tobacco mosaic virus) in 1898.

"OUTSIDE A CELL THEY EXIST AS INDEPENDENT PARTICLES CALLED VIRIONS"

STRUCTURE:

They have a very simple structure

a) Protein coat or capsid
b) A strand of genetic material , which can be either DNA/RNA (never both)
c) In some viruses there exists and outside envelop of lipids/fats.

VIROME:

A COMPLETE SET OF VIRUSES IN AN ORGANISM OR HABITAT.

e.g.:- All human viruses contribute to human virome.

Study of viruses is called as Virology, an advanced branch of Microbiology.

VIRULANCE:

It is a pathogen's or microbe's capacity to infect or damage host or it is relative ability of a virus to cause diseases.

ZOONOTIC DISEASES: 

It is an infectious disease caused by a pathogen that has jumped or came from non-human animals.

e.g. Ebola-Bats
Rabies-Dogs, Cats,Wolves
Bird flu-Birds
Swine flu-Pigs
Covid-19-Bats(presumably)

VIRUSES AS VECTORS:

In genetics scientists often use viruses as vectors i.e. to transfer specific genes in to target cells and develop required characters or traits in the host cell. (vectors-which carry genes from outside to inside of host cell. They can be compared to vehicles on which genes can travel inside a host cell)

VIROTHERAPY:

It is a branch of science , which uses viruses to treat certain diseases . Viruses have been used in treatment of cancer and can also be used in Gene therapy( A therapy developed to introduce required genes in a cell for treating abnormal genes and make required beneficial substance like a protein or hormone inside the host cell). 

HUMAN DISEASES: ( ONLY RECENTLY IN NEWS)

1.AIDS-HIV VIRUS( RNA  VIRUS)
2.CHICKENPOX-VERICELLA ZOSTER VIRUS(DNA VIRUS)
3.COMMON COLD-RHINOVIRUSES(RNA VIRUS)
4.RABIES-RABIES VIRUS(RNA VIRUS)
5.EBOLA-EBOLA VIRUSES(RNA VIRUS)
6.AVIAN INFLUENZA(BIRD FLU)-H5N1 VIRUS(RNA VIRUS)
7.SARS(SEVERE ACUTE RESPIRATORY SYNDROME)-SARS CoV 1 VIRUS( RNA VIRUS)
8.SPANISH FLU(1918-BLACK DEATH PANDEMIC) -H1N1 INFLUENZA STRAIN(RNA VIRUS)
9. SWINE FLU(2009)-INFLUENZA C, H1N1,H1N2 AND OTHER STRAINS OF INFLUENZA -A VIRUSES(RNA VIRUS)
10. COVID -19(RECENT PANDEMIC) -SARS CoV 2/ nCoV-2019( NOVEL CORONA VIRUS)-(RNA VIRUS)

* STRAIN MEANS  A VARIETY OF VIRUS.
* H5N1-H MEANS HEMAGGLUTININ AND N MEANS NEURAMINIDASE ( These are small protein spikes on the viral surface that help to invade cells)
* HEPATITIS B  AND C ARE ALSO VIRAL DISEASES CAUSED BY RNA VIRUSES.

COVID-19

Corona virus disease 2019 caused by SARS-CoV 2 VIRUS OR nCoV 2019(Novel corona virus.
It is a single stranded RNA virus, which is also called as WUHAN virus or WUHAN coronavirus.

First strains were discovered in WUHAN province of CHINA.

Name SARS-CoV 2  has been chosen because this virus resembles genetically to coronavirus responsible for 2003 outbreak of SARS.

Disease caused by the virus is COVID-2019.

NOTE: Name CORONA has been chosen because in LATIN CORONA means CROWN. Virus spike peplomers look like corona. Peplomers are glycoprotein spikes  on virus capsid which help to invade host cell.( Red colored spikes visible on corona virus surface pictures available online.)

No vaccine has been created for this pandemic disease so far.

It is highly contagious disease which spreads through droplets coming out of an infected person's mouth or nose during coughing and sneezing.

Usual onset of symptoms is 5 days from exposure , ranging between 2-14 days.

NOTE:

DIAGNOSTICS METHOD is rRT-PCR i.e. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction from a nasopahryngeal swab( a swab taken from back of the nose and throat.

ARUN JOSHI