The Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria, DICON has produced a low cost mechanical ventilator ‘DICOVENT’, capable of using electricity and rechargeable batteries to help in treatment of corona virus patients. Also produced by DICON using 100 per cent local content materials are Personnel Protective Equipment for health workers in the front lines and high quality hand sanitizers known as ‘DICOSANZ’. These breakthroughs were made known in Abuja at a joint press briefing by the Coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Major General John Enenche and the Director General, Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON), Major General Victor Ezugwu.
According to Major General Ezugwu, DICON has the capacity to produce 100 Ventilators in a month while it has capacity to mass produce the PPEs and hand sanitisers when required. DICON DG said that the Kaduna state government has place order for thousands of the personnel protective equipment for its healthcare practitioners stating that the organisation has the capacity, professionals and know how to produce any of the items when needed. Furthermore, Gen Ezugwu said that the Presidential Task Force on COVID 19 headed by Mr. Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the federation and the Minister of health, Prof. Ehanire during a visit, witnessed a physical presentation of the efficacy of the ventilators and the PPEs. He further said that the Presidential Task Force has directed DICON to forward a proposal for the TASK Force to partner in the mass production of the COVID 19 ventilators and PPEs for use of isolation and treatment centres. He said that initially, there were challenges in procuring the local content materials for the production of the items, but DICON has however overcome the challenges both in Kaduna and Lagos state. On his part, Major General John Enenche said that the Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Abayomi Olonisakin has directed all military formations across the country and those in theatres of operation to liaise with DICON for the procurement of the items as required.
Earlier, in an update on preparedness of the military to help in the fight against COVID 19, Enenche said, “The devastating pandemic of COVID 19 has brought a lot of hardship, agony and pains across the globe. The national response to the fight against this virus is not without challenges, ranging from a thorough understanding of the disease to the astronomically high demand for personal protective equipment, mechanical ventilators and other materials to manage the Pandemic. “Therefore, in response to the CDS directive to the Armed Forces to articulate strategic intervention to support the FGN fight against the COVID 19 Pandemic, the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) has taken the lead among others, to provide a local content driven response to address the shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in Nigeria.
“Additional to its primary responsibility to produce defence equipment, DICON has succeeded in diversifying its human, equipment, machinery as well as research and development capacity, to support a much-needed strategic intervention to cushion the effects of the highly dreaded COVID 19 in the country. Consequently, DICON, under the visionary leadership and result oriented leadership of Major Genera Victor Ezugwu, has mobilised its management and staff to research, develop, produce and produce several COVID-19 essential and lifesaving equipment. First is the production of over 1500 dozens of DICSanz, a high-quality hand sanitiser produced under very strict environmental conditions, requested by the COAS Lt. Gen TY Buratai for supply to troops of the Nigerian Army. This product is at the last stage of NAFDAC registration in line with extant due diligence provisions.
“Furthermore, DICON has responded to the directive by Minister of Defence Maj Gen Bashir Magashi (rtd) for the Armed Forces to support the indigenous capacity of Nigeria, to support Medical workers by producing thousands of high quality non permeable Personal Protective Equipment kit. Each unit of these kits consists of standardised gowns, face shield and nose masks. They are currently being produced in large quantities for use by Kaduna State Government and other national stakeholders. In addition to these, DICON engineers, consultants and medical teams have successfully produced a digital mechanical ventilator known as DICOVENT. The newly designed low-cost machine is a simple mechanical ventilator that can deliver positive pressured ventilation using a volume-controlled ventilation (VCV) system. The ventilator has undergone thorough scrutiny and assessment by specialists from top ranging hospitals and experts in the country including Cedar crest Hospital Abuja, 44 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital Kaduna amongst others . It is important to mention that while DICOVENT may not be able to meet the high demands of critical patients, it can be used for Continuous Mandatory Ventilation (CMV) and Intermittent Positive Pressure Ventilation (IPPV). It can also be used for invasive ventilation and non-invasive ventilation using an endotracheal tube and mask respectively.
“Suffice to note that these inventions by DICON including those by other military institutions of the Nigerian Army, Navy and Air force as well as Nigerian Defence Academy have given bright hope to Nigeria healthcare infrastructure on the fight against COVID 19. Let me at this juncture inform you that the efforts of DICON in producing these array of COVID 19 equipment has been assessed, commended and approved by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 Mr. Boss Mustapha, the Minister of Health, Prof Osagie Ehanire and Permanent Secretary; General Service Office (GSO) Sir Olusegun Adekunle. As DICON and other military institutions continue their drive to support our national effort to defeat COVID-19, the CDS hereby urge Federal and State Governments to patronise the local content initiative of the Armed Forces of Nigeria. He has therefore directed all the Armed Forces to liase with DICON for mass production of all prototypes of COVID-19 PPEs for national application.”
