Globally, more than 10 million babies are born prematurely each year, and pre-term birth complications are the leading cause of neonatal death. It is estimated that over 60% of all preterm births occur in Africa, and south Asia, with the occurence increasing almost in every country across the world. 8 in every 10 children admitted into hospital wards suffer from Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS), a condition that arises due to insufficient lung development. Therefore, they require continuous positive airway pressure at different stages of growth.
Due to that need, a previous project called "innovative continuous airway pressure for neonates" was developed. This project suggested a joint solution that enables the air flow from the CPAP and administration of medicine to be supplied simultaneously. Nevertheless, the solution had some problems that we want to solve.
The most pressing challenge with existing interventions is that of: mixing air flow and medicine far away from the infant's nose which makes some of the aerosol to remain on the walls of the tube, as droplets, instead of reaching the baby's nose. Another challenge is that currently, the mask only covers the nose making dust aerosol medicine hard to be delivered since it would diffuse through the mouth.
Our team is working on an innovative way to address this challenge by developing a Babies' Life Saving Mask (BLosSoM). Our innovation works in such a way that it combines the two components together: Continuous positive airway pressure, and administration of aerosol simultaneously through the mask.