Scarce medical oxygen worldwide leaves many gasping for life

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Gasping for life: Pandemic shows how oxygen access divides world’s rich and poor. By lhinnant carleypetesch pulitzercenter.

Medical workers offload cylinders of oxygen at the Donka public hospital where coronavirus patients are treated in Conakry, Guinea, on Wednesday, May 20, 2020. Before the coronavirus crisis, the hospital in the capital was going through 20 oxygen cylinders a day. By May, the hospital was at 40 a day and rising, according to Dr. Billy Sivahera of the aid group Alliance for International Medical Action.

Alassane Ly, a telecommunications engineer and U.S. resident who split his time between the Atlanta suburbs and his homeland, boarded a flight to Guinea in February. He promised his wife and young daughters he’d be home by April to celebrate Ramadan with them. His death has sparked a furor in Guinea. The country’s health minister, Rémy Lamah, maintained that Ly got excellent care at Donka.

Yet until 2017, oxygen wasn’t even on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines. In vast parts of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia, that meant there was little money from international donors and little pressure on governments to invest in oxygen knowledge, access or infrastructure.

In the few places where in-depth studies have been carried out, the situation looks dire. In Congo, only 2% of health care facilities have oxygen; in Tanzania, it’s 8%, and in Bangladesh, 7%, according to limited surveys for USAID. Most countries never even get surveyed. Finally, she managed to buy a cylinder at three times the price, but her brother-in-law is now in the hospital in critical condition.In Peru, which recently surpassed Italy in its number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, the president has ordered industrial plants to ramp up production for medical use or buy oxygen from abroad. He allocated about $28 million for oxygen tanks and new plants.

“I’m anxious and having panic attacks,” said Flores, a special events planner. “The amount of oxygen being brought here isn’t enough.” But in Guinea, not a single hospital bed has a direct oxygen supply, and the daily deliveries of cylinders are taking their toll on budgets, with each one costing $115. A standard cylinder costs on average $48 to $60 in Africa, compared to the same amount of oxygen for between $3 and $5 in wealthy countries, Olayo said.

Inequality is built into the distance along the mud roads. The SOGEDI oxygen factory delivers only to Conakry, and sparingly, for few medical centers even in the capital have the means to pay for its cylinders and so send away patients they cannot help.

 

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lhinnant carleypetesch pulitzercenter God save us.

lhinnant carleypetesch pulitzercenter how in the world is it that oxygen is in short supply? take a jar of water, put two wires into it. connect the wires to a battery. from one wire will bubble oxygen of a purity greater than that spec'ed as medical grade. oxygen is the easiest 'drug' to generate onsite.

lhinnant carleypetesch pulitzercenter Just when you think the morons in the Lamestream Media can't come up with anything more idiotic, they yell 'HOLD MY BEER!' smfh

lhinnant carleypetesch pulitzercenter I’m not deep,is it good or bad?

lhinnant carleypetesch pulitzercenter How can this be? You can’t do this to people in need!

lhinnant carleypetesch pulitzercenter Vai_Oliii

lhinnant carleypetesch pulitzercenter Thanks Democrats and globalists for killing so many people with the fake hysteria

lhinnant carleypetesch pulitzercenter The Coronavirus has changed everything, this week a Brazilian arrived in Spain and there are already new cases

lhinnant carleypetesch pulitzercenter Y not just use a portable oxygen generator? Home care patients always have them. Just runs next to the bed. Hellooo.

lhinnant carleypetesch pulitzercenter So many typos in the article.

lhinnant carleypetesch pulitzercenter Isn't oxygen in air and is it so costly to make medical grade oxygen 🤔 ScienceChannel bmj_latest

lhinnant carleypetesch pulitzercenter You don’t gasp for “life,” you gasp for “air.” Headline is dumb. “Breaking news: Better healthcare in more developed parts of the world. Why you should hate your country for it.”

lhinnant carleypetesch pulitzercenter So much for the 'rich, poor, in front of the virus we are all the same' rhetoric.

lhinnant carleypetesch pulitzercenter Oxygen access ... 🤔

lhinnant carleypetesch pulitzercenter Hey guise. Remember that time I called that?

lhinnant carleypetesch pulitzercenter Rough headline lol (not laughing about the problem just the headline)

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