Turkish-made ventilators rival foreign models – health adviser

Domestic medical ventilators made by four Turkish companies are getting good reviews from doctors and are a better buy than imported models, according to a top adviser on the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have sufficient medical ventilators in hospitals which give high-quality service. In that, we are different from other countries," said Dr Sema Kultufan Turan, a member of the board advising Turkey's health ministry on the outbreak.

Turkey has more than 101,000 Covid-19 cases and at least 2,491 deaths, as of Thursday.

"We have seen our domestically produced medical ventilator can compete with those imported ones, and can even do so better," she said

Turan said the device developed by Turkish firms Arcelik, Aselsan, Baykar, and Biosys is offered at a much better price than imported models.

"I believe it’s quite important to produce such a product,” she said, adding, "Our ventilator can become much better than others with some additional software."

Turkish tech firm Biosys developed the device, and after the pandemic hit, Turkish firms started mass production in coordination with the Ministry of Technology and Industry.

Turkish engineers set up mass production of the first indigenous intensive care ventilator in just 14 days.

'Strong health system'

"Since the first case [in Turkey] till today, it is seen that the strong health army and infrastructure of our country have been working efficiently and adjusted themselves with the rapidly changing situations," Sedat Ustundag, the Trakya University Health Sciences Faculty dean, said.

He said data shows Turkey's success in the fight.

"Actually, our health system had intense workload and labour, so we are in one of the most advantageous countries in terms of complying with the new situation," he said.

After originating in China last December, Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has spread to at least 200 countries and regions across the world.

The pandemic has killed more than 190,000 people, with total infections exceeding 2.72 million, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.