An Easy Squeezy for the asthmatic

SOUTH Africa has the fourth highest asthma-related death toll in the world. According to Biomedical engineers at UCT Medical Devices Laboratory, there are 3.9 million people living with the condition, 10% being adults and 20% children suffer from asthma. The engineers have introduced a device designed to improve the quality of life of asthma sufferers.

The Easy Squeezy, an attachment sleeve that fits over a standard inhaler that reduces the force required to activate the inhaler by approximately two thirds, making it manageable for most children and elderly asthma sufferers.

In SA asthma claims 58 500 lives yearly, according to the engineers.

The head of the Division of Asthma and Allergy at UCT, Associate Professor Michael Levin, said watching his patients, including his own daughter, having difficulty using their pumps was the inspiration behind the design.

“We thought: what if we could make a way of pressing the pumps easier?”

“We spend a lot of our time counselling patients about the importance of using their pumps every day with the best possible technique. And often we place blame on them when they don’t use them every day. But what if they are trying, but just can’t manage to get it right?” said Levin.

Levin, along with Professor Sudesh Sivarasu, Giancarlo Beukes and Gokul Nair, are part of UCT’s Medical Devices Group that develops affordable medical technologies.

The device ensures that both children and the elderly are able to use their pumps without assistance. – Staff Writer