At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, millions of people in poor nations literally died for breathing, even in hospitals. What they lack was medical oxygen, which is incomplete in much of the world.
On Monday, a group of experts published a comprehensive report on the lack. Each year, the report noted that more than 370 million people worldwide need oxygen as part of their medical care, but fewer than 1 in 3 receive it, endangering the health and life of those who do not. Access to safe and affordable medical oxygen is particularly limited to low and medium -income nations.
“The need is very urgent,” said Dr. Hamish Graham, a pediatrician and chief author of the exhibition. “We know that there are more epidemics and there will be another pandemic, probably like Covid, within the next 15 to 20 years.”
The report, published in Lancet Global Health, comes just a few weeks after Trump’s administration to freeze external aid programs, including some that could improve access to oxygen.
Strengthening the availability of medical oxygen would require an investment of approximately $ 6.8 billion, the report was reported. “As part of today’s climate, this will obviously become a little more challenge,” said Carina King, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Karolinska Institute and chief author of the exhibition.
He also said, governments and funding agencies must prioritize medical oxygen because of their importance throughout health care. People of all ages may need oxygen for pneumonia and other respiratory conditions, for severe infections, including malaria and septicemia, for surgery and for chronic pulmonary conditions.
“We do not put oxygen against other priorities, but rather that it must be incorporated into all these programs and within these priorities,” Dr. King said. “It is completely fundamental for an operating system.”
Medical oxygen has been used for more than 100 years, often to treat patients with pneumonia. But it was added to the list of basic medicines of the World Health Organization only in 2017.
Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, each breath counts, a coalition of more than 50 organisms, prompted increased access to medical oxygen. By the end of 2022, an emergency group had mobilized more than $ 1 billion worth of medical oxygen and supplies in more than 100 countries.
A country that has made significant investments in improving oxygen access is Nigeria, which had taken steps in this direction even before Covid.
Nigeria has created about 20 cost -effective plants for the creation of oxygen on the site for hospitals and is investigating liquid oxygen plants that can provide large urban areas, said Dr. Muhamad Ali Pate, Minister of Health and Social Welfare of the country.
Many hospitals do not have systems that can provide reliable oxygen, “so it is a type of plan and a heritage issue that we need to face,” he said. “There are more to be done.”
Modification of hospital systems to provide oxygen can cause mechanical and market problems and oxygen supply requires infrastructure that can carry heavy oxygen tanks for long distances.
Even when the supply of oxygen is assured, the equipment for the supply of oxygen directly to patients should be maintained and usually cleaned and months may take months. Health -care workers need to be trained to use equipment effectively.
“We have seen so many investments in equipment, but very few investments on how to sustain this equipment viable,” Dr. King said.
Sanitary care facilities also require pulsed oxyometrics to examine and monitor blood oxygen levels during treatment. But in low and medium income countries, pulse oximetry is used in less than 1 in 5 patients in general hospitals and almost never used in primary health care facilities, according to the report.
The group included testimonies from patients, families and healthcare workers who have struggled with the lack of oxygen. In Sierra Leone, before the Covid-19 pandemic, only one public hospital across the country had an Oxygen Factory, resulting in thousands of deaths that can be avoided. In Pakistan, a man with chronic pulmonary state said he stayed indoors and avoids the stairs to prevent his lungs from pushing under the stem. He had to borrow money from friends and family to pay the cost of $ 18,000 treatment at home.
In Ethiopia, a doctor was forced to remove oxygen from one patient to cure another who was more desperately ill. “He was very jerk trying to decide who lives and who dies,” he said.
