A Fresh Pneumonia Treatment for Newborns

Babies with pneumonia need help maintaining their oxygen levels, so they’re often assisted by a ventilator to ease breathing and help with oxygen absorption. Without a costly ventilator available, children like those seen at Dhaka Hospital of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh can die from pneumonia even if they’re receiving oxygen. To help his patients recover, pediatrician Mohamad Chisti turned to a shampoo bottle.

Dr. Chisti used a plastic bottle to fashion a bubble-CPAP, which transforms exhaled breath into smaller bubbles that an infant can re-inhale more easily. Pediatric pneumonia deaths have fallen by 75% since Dhaka Hospital began using the bottle ventilators.

Read more at The Economist.