The Vihelm invention team and Vihelm “mobile isolation” hats (Photo: VNA)Geneva (VNA) – The World Health Organisation
(WHO) has highly valued Vietnam’s innovation spirit and willingness to share
.
At a meeting between representatives of the WHO and Vietnam
in Geneva on innovation in the COVID-19 fight, WHO Assistance Director General Dr. Mariangela
Simao lauded the cooperation of the Vietnamese Government in medical sector and efforts to promote innovation, especially ideas of youngsters such as Vihelm
“mobile isolation” hats, thus seeking new solutions to protect people’s health
amid COVID-19.
The WHO welcomed the intention of the Vihelm creators in
joining the COVID-19 Technologies Access Pool (C-TAP), a joint
initiative by the WHO and Costa Rica.
For his part, Deputy Health Minister Do Xuan
Tuyen said that Vietnam welcomes the C-TAP initiative that aims to strengthen
international solidarity in effectively coping with COVID-19. By encouraging
science-technology initiatives in COVID-19 control and honouring the global
solidarity spirit by countries responding to the Solidarity Call to Action, the
C-TAP has drawn the involvement of and contributions by creators and technology
firms to the global anti-pandemic efforts, he noted.
He said that so far, many innovative ideas have been developed and applied in
Vietnam, including Vihelm, an air purification device that helps protect
the respiratory system. The creators proposed the use of the device instead of traditional
quarantine.
(fourth, left), Deputy Health Minister Do Xuan Tuyen (fifth, left) as well as Vietnamese and WHO representatives at the meeting (Photo: VNA)The Vihelm invention team has shared the product design for
free and is ready to support technology transfer through C-TAP to facilitate
access to Vihelm, he said, adding that their contribution to C-TAP represents
the international solidarity against COVID-19, which is welcomed by both the WHO
and the Ministry of Health of Vietnam.
Tuyen expressed his belief that with the coordination of the WHO and the active
engagement of countries, inventors and scientists with strong sense of international
solidarity, the C-TAP will continue to grow with many applicable scientific studies and practical products to defeat the pandemic.
The official affirmed that Vietnam is willing to join the
C-TAP to share its open inventions and transfer technologies to the world to
deal with the pandemic and other diseases.
Following the meeting, which took place after the recent
visit by President Nguyen Xuan Phuc to the WHO, WHO experts worked in detail
with the Vihelm invention team on a number of technical issues related to the WHO’s
evaluation process on medical products to put Vihelm into the list of shared
open inventions as part of the C-TAP, enabling the transfer of Vihelm production technology to producers in other countries, thus contributing to the
global efforts in COVID-19 response./.
Source: VietnamPlus
