DR HIEP NGUYEN

Vietnam

The idea for Dr Nguyen’s liquid bandage, which can stop bleeding from large cuts, stemmed from her childhood memories of Vietnam’s countryside.

“Back then, hospitals were very far away and it took at least two hours to get there,” she explains. “And there were no vehicles. When people get into accidents, there is a lot of blood and they do not know how to seal their wounds or get to the hospital in time. There are also soldiers at the border who live very far away and I wanted to do something that they could keep in their bag.”

Her powder, now developed and in its stage of searching for investors to mass produce, has a long lifespan that can be kept for years because it must be mixed with water for usage. The gel can then be applied over the wound to absorb liquid from the wound, prevent infection and enhance healing. The FWIS fellow envisions selling a one-use package for an affordable price of US$1 (31.6 baht), which has always been the aim of her work.

“I tried to use very simple and common ingredients in Vietnam. We eat a lot of shrimp and its shell is wasted. Yet, the chitosan in the shell’s cells is very useful in tissue regeneration. Comments from the committee also said I should incorporate traditional ingredients because Vietnam has a lot of traditional medicine like China. I am also exploring curcumin as one of the ingredients, because the ones from Vietnam are more potent than other countries.”