Coronavirus India | COVID-19 warriors in Bhopal hospital wear 'air bubbles' to prevent contracting infection

The air bubbles are sealed transparent face covers that are filled with virus-free compressed air so that the COVID-19 warriors do not contract the novel coronavirus disease while treating patients

Moneycontrol News

July 31, 2020 / 08:55 PM IST

A doctor working at a private hospital in Bhopal has devised a brilliant gear to ensure medicos and healthcare workers on COVID-19 duty are not exposed to coronavirus.

The doctor has built air bubbles, which are entirely sealed transparent face coverings, reported NDTV. They are filled with virus-free compressed air so that the COVID-19 warriors do not contract the disease while treating patients.

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Most air bubbles are connected to a compressor kept 200 feet away from the hospital building, but there are some air bubbles that are portable so that doctors can interact with patients while wearing these.

Cardiologist Dr Skand Trivedi, who built the simple yet effective device, said it was specifically made to ensure the safety of healthcare workers, doctors, and nurses who attend to coronavirus patients.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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