LIP against Covid-19
"Our colleague Luís Mendes is in Rio de Janeiro within a collaboration between LIP and CBPF. Since the beginning of the pandemic, he has been involved in the development of equipment to help fight Covid-19. The news that the AeroClean air sterilizer is already in operation was published this week"
Our colleague Luís Mendes is currently at the Brazilian Center for Physical Research (CBPF), in Rio de Janeiro, as part of a collaboration between LIP and CBPF for the development of cosmic ray detectors. Since the beginning of the pandemic, he has participated in the development of personal protection equipment for healthcare professionals and patients , to help in the fight against Covid-19.
The social networks of Poliquínica Piquet Carneiro (PPC), the medical clinic of the State University of Rio de Janeiro, have now published the news that an antiviral air purifier with the purpose of making hospitals and other medical environments free of microorganisms is already working at PPC. AeroClean, designed as a tool against Covid-19, is composed of six stages of sterilization: two bactericidal layers working on the basis of ultraviolet rays, two layers of ozone, a high efficiency filter (HEPA) and an activated carbon filter. As a disease testing center and part of the University's health complex, PPC was chosen to receive the first AeroClean. The first prototype was installed in December for testing.
In addition to AeroClean, a Covid-19 aerosol exhaust chamber was also developed, and two patents were registered. These devices are useful in non-invasive ventilation situations for patients with Covid-19. Next, five exhaustion chambers and an AeroClean sterilizer will be delivered to the Army Central Hospital. At this moment, there are already companies interested in their industrial reproduction, starting the certification process at the National Health Surveillance Agency. The projects have been co-coordinated by Rodrigo Felix (Faculty of Engineering at UERJ and CBPF), Luis Mendes (LIP) and Carlos Nelson Elias (Military Institute of Engineering) with the support of Casa Firjan and CBPF.
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News on actions to help fighting the Covid-19 pandemic involving LIP members have been published here in several occasion during Spring 2020 and collected in the latest number of the LIP-News Bulletin (see pages 14-16)