New Unitaid report: How to increase access to medical oxygen in low-resource settings
“Liquid medical oxygen can level the playing field”
Japan commits US$7.3 million to Unitaid to strengthen access to lifesaving medical oxygen in Kenya and Tanzania
Key points
- The new funding supports Unitaid’s broader strategic objective to expand access, lower prices and increase supply of medical oxygen in countries across Africa
- Sustainable oxygen systems are a building block for health system strengthening, universal health coverage and pandemic prevention, preparedness and response
- Liquid medical oxygen is more stable, easier to handle and 20% less expensive on a per-unit basis than oxygen produced through other systems like pressure swing adsorption plants
Unitaid welcomes Japan’s announcement to provide US$7.3 million to expand access to reliable, sustainable supplies of medical oxygen in Kenya and Tanzania. The new funding supports Unitaid’s broader strategic objective to expand access, lower prices and increase supply of medical oxygen in countries across Africa.
“The lack of medical oxygen during the COVID-19 pandemic was a brutal wake-up call to the world. Health facilities without sustainable supplies of medical oxygen were unable to treat their patients, leading to countless preventable deaths,” said Dr. Philippe Duneton, Unitaid’s Executive Director. “But medical oxygen is needed beyond pandemics. For children with pneumonia, mothers in childbirth and newborns in respiratory distress, access to medical oxygen is the difference between life and death. Japan is an important partner in supporting countries to achieve universal health coverage. Building sustainable, reliable access to medical oxygen for all patients who need it is a key component of a strong health system.”
Medical oxygen is a lifesaving medicine with no substitute. It is essential for surgery, emergency and critical care, and for treating severe respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19 and pneumonia. Medical oxygen is also critical for treating pregnant women with complications, newborns in respiratory distress and people with severe malaria, advanced HIV disease and tuberculosis (TB), among other critical health issues. For example, strengthening oxygen systems worldwide could cut hospital-based pneumonia deaths among children by half and overall hospital deaths of children under 5 by a quarter.
As the G7 Presidency in 2023, Japan emphasized the importance of achieving more resilient, equitable and sustainable universal health coverage to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, and to achieve the targets in Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good health and well-being. Ensuring equitable, sustainable, affordable and timely access to medical oxygen is critical to all these objectives.
“Access to medical oxygen is a critical component of a strong health system, and helps countries achieve universal health coverage,” said Ambassador AKAHORI Takeshi, Assistant Minister and Director-General for Global Issues of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. “This new funding will support Kenya and Tanzania improve patient care today and be prepared to respond to future crises, saving lives.”
The new project will focus on liquid oxygen, a form of medical oxygen that shows the most significant potential in improving long-term, sustainable, and affordable access to oxygen in low-resource settings. Stored in large tanks at medical facilities, liquid oxygen is more stable, easier to handle and 20% less expensive on a per-unit basis than oxygen produced through other systems like pressure swing adsorption plants. It also doesn’t require electricity to produce, which is a critical element in countries where electrical grids face interruptions in electrical supply.
Unitaid is a global leader in building sustainable, reliable and affordable access to medical oxygen and oxygen equipment in low- and middle-income countries. Increasing access to oxygen is more than simply increasing supply; through Unitaid’s market-shaping approach, we work with partners to introduce innovations such as better quality, more affordable oxygen delivery systems; strengthen health security by building regional oxygen production capabilities; create healthy competitive markets by negotiating lower prices with existing suppliers; facilitate skills transfer and training for emerging suppliers to meet quality standards and further lowering prices and creating more competitive markets; and to support governments and health facilities to determine the most appropriate oxygen system for their needs.
To take our approach to scale, in 2023 we co-founded the Global Oxygen Alliance (GO2AL), a partnership that includes more than 20 health partners and representatives from civil society and affected communities, co-chaired by Unitaid and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. GO2AL aims to convert the investments made during the COVID-19 pandemic into lives saved, including financing to expand production, lowering the price of oxygen and providing technical support to governments, ensuring sustainable oxygen systems are a building block for health system strengthening, universal health coverage and pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
Media contact:
For more information and media requests:
Hervé Verhoosel
Head of Communications and Spokesperson
M: +33 6 22 59 73 54
About Unitaid
We save lives by making critical health products available and affordable for people in low- and middle-income countries. We work with partners to identify innovative treatments, tests and tools, help tackle the market barriers that are holding them back, and get them to the people who need them most – fast. Since we were created in 2006, we have unlocked access to more than 100 groundbreaking health products to help address the world’s biggest health challenges, including HIV, TB, and malaria; women’s and children’s health; and pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. Every year, more than 300 million people benefit from the products we’ve helped roll out.
Need to improve oxygen access has not ended with the pandemic
Better supplies could prevent countless deaths from common illnesses
by P. Duneton, T. Akahori and P. Amoth – February 2, 2024
Nikkei Asia
Philippe Duneton is executive director of global health organization Unitaid. Takeshi Akahori is ambassador and assistant minister for global issues in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Patrick Amoth is the acting director general for health of Kenya.
Without oxygen, we die. This may seem obvious, but in many health facilities around the world, access to lifesaving medical oxygen is often unavailable and underfunded.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic put oxygen in the headlines, severe shortages of medical oxygen had been a problem for decades. Fewer than half of health facilities in low- and middle-income countries had uninterrupted access. Of the 7.2 million children who typically had a critical need for medical oxygen each year to treat pneumonia in low- and middle-income countries, only one in five received it.
COVID-19 made these problems much worse. Within a matter of weeks, the number of people needing medical oxygen to live increased tenfold. Many hospitals ran out of supplies, leading to countless preventable deaths.
While it is unknown how many of the 25 million deaths as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic were due to a lack of oxygen, studies have shown that hypoxemia, or low levels of oxygen in the blood, was a major cause of death from COVID-19 in low-resource settings.
The need for medical oxygen suddenly became painfully clear, and the world scrambled to respond.
Health institutions, co-led by global health organization Unitaid, launched the Oxygen Emergency Taskforce as part of a groundbreaking collaboration with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the World Health Organization (WHO) to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and diagnostics.
World Oxygen Day
Medical oxygen is a lifesaving medicine with no substitute. It is essential for surgery, emergency and critical care, and for treating severe respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19 and pneumonia. It is also crucial for treating pregnant women with complications, newborns in respiratory distress and people with severe malaria, advanced HIV disease and tuberculosis.
But despite its importance, medical oxygen is often unavailable where needed most. Severe shortages of medical oxygen have been a problem for decades; fewer than 50% of health facilities in many low- and middle- income countries have uninterrupted access. This has deadly consequences for the most vulnerable. For example, of the 7.2 million children with pneumonia in critical need of medical oxygen each year in LMICs, only one in five children will receive it.
In our new Issue Brief, we explain how Unitaid is working with partners to ensure equitable, sustainable access to medical oxygen for the people who need it most. From introducing innovative new devices to provide oxygen to newborns who are struggling to breathe to negotiating cost-saving new deals with liquid oxygen suppliers, we’re responding to today’s crises while helping build sustainable systems that will save millions more lives in the future.
Media contact:
For more information and media requests:
Hervé Verhoosel
Head of Communications and Spokesperson
M: +33 6 22 59 73 54
UN High-Level Meetings must prioritize medical oxygen to save lives, say world’s leading agencies
Geneva/New York – In advance of the three UN High-Level Meetings on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, Universal Health Coverage, and Tuberculosis 20-22 September 2023, about 20 of the world’s leading agencies call on world leaders to prioritize access to medical oxygen in health strategies, policies, and financing.
The Global Oxygen Alliance (GO2AL) was launched in May 2023 with Unitaid and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as co-chairs, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) as vice-chairs, and Unitaid, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF sharing the secretariat. GO2AL is calling for world leaders to ensure the 2023 World Health Assembly Resolution on Increasing Access to Medical Oxygen, adopted by all 194 WHO Member States, is reflected in the universal health coverage, pandemic preparedness, prevention and response, and tuberculosis agendas.
“Medical oxygen is a lifesaving medicine that is essential to pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, achieving universal health coverage and the fight against tuberculosis. If we’re going to increase access and affordability of medical oxygen for the people who need it most, we need innovative ways of producing and delivering it, and tools adapted for use in low-resource settings,” said Philippe Duneton, Executive Director of Unitaid.
Medical oxygen is a lifesaving essential medicine without substitute, used to treat both acute and chronic respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19 and pneumonia. It is essential for surgery, trauma, emergency, critical care, and for treating older people, pregnant women with obstetric complications and newborns in respiratory distress; and can support the management of opportunistic infections due to advanced HIV infection and severe forms of tuberculosis and malaria, as well as non-communicable diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cardiovascular disease.
“Access to medical oxygen and respiratory care is an essential part of resilient and sustainable health systems and a critical element of pandemic preparedness. Investments in oxygen delivery systems will save lives now and build surge capacity for countries to respond against future health threats,” said Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund.
Severe shortages of medical oxygen have been a problem for decades in many low- and middle- income countries (LMICs) and less than 50 percent of health facilities have uninterrupted access to medical oxygen. This has deadly consequences for the most vulnerable; for example, of the 7.2 million children with pneumonia in critical need of medical oxygen each year in LMICs, only one in five children will receive it. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these chronic shortages, leading to many preventable deaths and straining already fragile health systems.
“Availability of medical oxygen can be a matter of life and death that requires deliberate political commitment. I stared at death when I was diagnosed with COVID-19 due to delayed access to oxygen therapy owing to cost and inadequate supply. Families experienced preventable deaths that would have been averted with availability of affordable medical oxygen. Without the prioritization and sustained support from governments, access to this crucial resource will remain a hindrance to provision of quality health care and efforts in saving lives.” Said Maurine Murenga, Executive Director, Lean On Me Foundation and the Communities Constituency for GO2AL.
GO2AL calls on governments and health systems to:
- prioritize access to medical oxygen in health strategies, policies, and financing in support of universal health coverage and pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
- ensure that people (especially children and newborns) with pneumonia or other respiratory and critical illnesses, pregnant women and surgical patients, have reliable access to medical oxygen therapy.
- develop comprehensive guidance for the use of medical oxygen for tuberculosis patients to support holistic care.
Access to a sustainable, reliable supply of medical oxygen in low- and middle-income countries is critical to achieving the health-related targets of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, particularly to achieving universal health coverage, supporting pandemic preparedness, prevention and response, and ending epidemics including tuberculosis.
Additional quotes from GO2AL members:
“The pandemic highlighted how important it is to guarantee access to a sustainable, reliable supply of medical oxygen in LMICs. This is a crucial aspect to achieve universal coverage and access, based on a strong and renewed primary health care.” said Jarbas Barbosa da Silva Jr., Director of PAHO.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare a long-ignored aspect of health capacity in LMICs. Therefore, sustainable investments in medical oxygen must be prioritized in the ongoing global discussion on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response and universal health coverage,” said H.E. Dr. Jean Kaseya, Director General of Africa CDC.
Editor’s note: For more information about this call to action, please see the GO2AL briefing note titled “Medical Oxygen: Essential for saving lives today and tomorrow”.
For more information about GO2AL and its new Strategy: executive summary, please visit the GO2AL website.
About GO2AL
During the COVID-19 pandemic in February 2021, amidst widespread global oxygen shortages, the world’s leading health agencies created the Oxygen Emergency Taskforce as part of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-Accelerator). The taskforce raised more than US$1 billion to boost access to medical oxygen, expand production, negotiate for better pricing, and provide technical advice to governments. As the world transitioned from the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and prepares for future health threats, the ACT-Accelerator Oxygen Emergency Taskforce evolved in May 2023 into the Global Oxygen Alliance (GO2AL), a broader partnership of about 20 health agencies and representatives from civil society and affected communities to convert the investments made during the pandemic into lives saved and to expand the work started by the taskforce.
GO2AL members include the Access to Medicine Foundation; Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Build Health International; the Clinton Health Access Initiative; the Every Breath Counts Coalition; Pan American Health Organization, Partners In Health; PATH; Save the Children; the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; UNICEF; Unitaid; UNOPS; the United States Agency for International Development; the World Health Organization; the World Bank; and representatives from civil society and affected communities. New members, including representation from LMICs, are being invited as GO2AL strives to build a stronger, more diverse, and inclusive membership.
Media contact:
For more information and media requests:
Hervé Verhoosel
Head of Communications and Spokesperson
M: +33 6 22 59 73 54