This initiative that Costa Rica is taking so that both laboratories and research centers create the technology to combat the COVID-19 Pandemic, is paying off. And is that, thanks to these efforts it has been possible to reduce the dependence on imported health and medical products, at this time of great global demand for them.
It should be noted that Costa Rican scientists have developed protective equipment, ventilators, capsules to transport infected patients, and even medicine to treat patients with COVID-19.
Articulated work by various sectors
The Costa Rican Minister of Science and Technology Luis Adrian Salazar commented: “With the arrival of COVID-19, we began to work jointly with various sectors, academic, private national and transnational, and civil society, in order to achieve self-sufficiency in medical equipment”.
Similarly, Salazar said, “If we have to work in a protective mask, there are those who can make the mask, others can design the supports, others in 3D make the prototype of the product, and they are presented to the health authorities for validation.” The objective of all this is to guarantee that the Costa Rican health system is adequately supplied to meet the demand required to face the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Medicines to treat those infected by Coronavirus
Photo: PixabayOne of the main health products that is being developed in Costa Rica, is a medicine to treat those infected by Coronavirus, produced by the Clodomiro Picado Institute (ICP), a research center known internationally for the manufacture and export of antivenom serums.
To develop this drug, the ICP received the Coronavirus protein strains from laboratories in China and Great Britain and injected them into horses to develop antibodies, for the horse’s blood plasma to function as the basis plasma production means of the ongoing treatment, which could be ready in three to four months, the scientists explained.
ICP veterinary doctor Mauricio Arguedas commented, “When the procedure is done, the horse’s body will recognize these proteins and generate the antibodies. Then these antibodies will be used in sick patients.”
Mechanical respirators to be used in patients with COVID-19
Although Costa Rica has remained the country on the American continent with the lowest rate of deaths from COVID-19, it has been preparing to attend a potential high peak in the Coronavirus transmission curve.
That is why Costa Rican scientists have designed and created medical respirators to help patients most severely affected by the Coronavirus. To date, respirators have passed all of the test protocols that they have undergone.
One of the recent tests carried out was animal (pig) tests, which yielded positive results, demonstrating the effectiveness of the equipment and after a series of subsequent validations and protocols, could begin to be used in human patients with COVID-19.
It is important to know that pigs are animals with a lung capacity similar to that of humans, and the information obtained will serve to study the calibration of the device for human patients with COVID-19.
Costa Rica is a small country in area, but big in positive and effective health goals, and these results are expected to be seen in the coming months as we face the Pandemic that not only plagues our nation but the entire world.
