en |
Designing a Solar Powered Automatic Hand-Dryer to Combat the Outbreak of Ebola and Monkey Pox Diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa
OKPEKI, UK; OYUBU, AO & OYUBU, AU
Abstract
In recent times, the outbreak and the concomitant spread of Monkey pox and Ebola virus diseases across
some countries of sub-Saharan Africa in electrifying waves was terrifying. The countries worst hit are Liberia, Sierra
Leone, Ghana, and Nigeria. The outbreaks which were earlier recorded in 1953 and contained suddenly resurfaced in 2013
and 2017 respectively but to this day, the medical profession has not been able to proffer a cure to these deadly diseases.
A major mode of transmitting these diseases is through contact with an infected person especially by touching such
persons; hence, washing/sanitizing of hands has become a standard preventive practice over the years. One effective means
of hand sanitization is the use of a hand-dryer which not only dries a wet hand after washing but also has the ability to kill
germs through the hot air of about 530C it produces. Available hand-dryers are AC powered; as such, they cannot be used
in areas where there is no electricity or where electricity supply is erratic like many sub-Saharan African countries.
Consequently, the design and implementation of a solar powered hand-dryer becomes imperative since these deadly
diseases have no known cure at the moment but can be prevented by applying appropriate preventive measures. The design
contains primarily two sections-the solar power section which comprises circuits /components that function together to
charge the batteries that power the hand-dryer system, and the hand-dryer section that comprises the transmitter/ receiver
circuit, the heater, the fan and other components that work together to make the hand-dryer section function properly.
Every stage of the design was tested for performance before the system was assembled. The design was implemented and
it functioned according to design objective.
Keywords
Ebola; Monkey pox; Solar; hand-dryer; disease.
|