The Hindu : New Delhi News : New hope for disaster victims

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 14, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

New hope for disaster victims

Staff Reporter

Infuplus, Infubox useful for soldiers too

NEW DELHI: Coming to the rescue of those effected by hypothermia in the quake-hit areas of the country is the world's first and only equipment of its kind -- Infuplus bag and Infubox -- designed to be used for its treatment during unforeseen calamities including earthquakes.

Designed by a Norwegian team consisting of eminent people from the field of environment, medicine, engineering and defence, the group, led by product inventor Tom H. Bolstad, is at present here in the Capital to continue discussion with the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to "promote the benefits of this unique product".

Hypothermia is a physiological state in the human body when it slips into 35 degree Celsius or less and any cause of temperature fall in the body below this threshold will rapidly cause shivering, drowsiness, sluggish body movement and mental impairment. Also if the temperature continues to fall -- there will most certainly be severe organ damage and eventually death. In worst cases, death may be just minutes away.

The immediate line of treatment followed till now has been to deliver heat to the human body to increase the body temperature in a manner that is efficient. There has been little success with external heating with products like "bear-hugger", "heated blanket" or "sleeping bags". "The latest Infuplus bag allows cooled or warmed fluids to be stable during intravenous administration with a minimal temperature loss. It is also designed for patients/soldiers to carry with minimal effort. The Infubox is a precise instrument for temperature regulation -- that allows the temperature in the fluid to be cooled/warmed to less than 0.5 degree within minutes. Therefore, one will be ready to handle both hypo and hyperthermia within minutes of each other,'' explained Mr. Bolstad.

While talks are on with various departments for the use of the bag-box in rescue operation in the earthquake that hit northern part of India and parts of Pakistan, Mr. Bolstad is not yet ready to provide details of the talks.

"Talks are on and we might provide the product for use in rescue effort for victims of the recent earthquake. The products are simple and can be used by anyone with minimum training. The materials are durable and require no expensive software upgrades,'' Mr. Bolstad added.

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