In a new paper published in The Lancet Global Health, researchers from Yale School of Medicine and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria present new data on oxygen systems at 2,884 health facilities in 39 low- and middle-income countries. Using this large dataset, the team characterized whether oxygen therapy was reliably available and whether 17 different components of oxygen systems—from oxygen cylinders to mechanical ventilators—were available and functional at primary, secondary, and tertiary-level health facilities in six different geographic regions.
They found that many health facilities—over 75% of primary, almost half of secondary, and one-third of tertiary-level facilities—either did not have access to oxygen or had at least one period without oxygen access over the preceding three months. Across geographic regions, there were also vast inequalities in access to functional system components to source, distribute, deliver, and measure oxygen therapy. The team goes on to explain, “These findings suggest how global health financing of oxygen systems, whether linked to universal health coverage, pandemic preparedness and response, or vertical disease policy and programme objectives, could have profound, potentially lasting impacts on global morbidity and mortality.”
Corresponding author, Nadir Ijaz, MD, MHS, said, “Many members of our team are clinicians, and we’ve seen firsthand how reliable access to oxygen—whether in the U.S. or in other countries—can literally mean the difference between life and death for our patients. Oxygen systems are as complex as they are vital, and we hope our work provides more evidence for scientists, clinicians, and policymakers to understand the magnitude of the problem and partner together to implement sustainable and impactful solutions."
Read more about their findings and possible solutions to increase reliable access to oxygen in The Lancet Global Health.