Global Oxygen Alliance launched to boost access to life saving oxygen

Geneva – Oxygen, a life-saving medicine to treat acute respiratory illnesses like COVID-19 and pneumonia, is essential for surgery, trauma, emergency and critical care, and treating older persons, pregnant women and newborns. Medical oxygen is also proving to be a critical tool in pandemic preparedness as the world braces itself for potential future outbreaks of respiratory diseases.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which left many patients literally gasping for air, exacerbated chronic shortages of medical oxygen in low- and middle-income countries, leading to many preventable deaths and straining the already fragile health systems.

Even before COVID-19 swept across the world, nine in ten hospitals in low- and middle-income countries were unable to provide oxygen therapy, resulting in as many as 800,000 preventable deaths each year.

Against this backdrop, the Oxygen Emergency Taskforce of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) was launched in February 2021 to coordinate the response of multilateral agencies and mobilize grant financing to help low and middle-income countries deal with acute oxygen shortages.

As WHO declares an end to COVID-19 as a global health emergency, a new Global Oxygen Alliance (GO2AL) is launched by global health partners to continue the essential work of the ACT-A Oxygen Emergency Taskforce, which raised more than US$1 billion to boost access to medical oxygen, including financing to expand production, lower the price of oxygen and provide technical support to governments. Taskforce achievements include negotiating ground-breaking agreements with the world’s two largest medical oxygen suppliers, drawing up plans to increase regional production of oxygen in low- and middle-income countries, and helping more than 100 countries to upgrade their treatment facilities.

GO2AL is designed to provide sustained support for low- and middle-income countries to fill yawning gaps in the availability and supply of medical oxygen. A core objective of GO2AL is to support countries with technical cooperation, financial solutions, capacity building, and demand-generation, to ensure that investments in oxygen systems made during the COVID-19 crisis are sustained. GO2AL will also engage in political advocacy and give a voice to those making oxygen systems work on the ground and those who need it.

“The case for scaling up oxygen therapy is overwhelming,” said Unitaid’s Executive Director Philippe Duneton. “More than one million people die each year from hypoxemia, or low blood oxygen, caused by conditions other than COVID-19, such as pneumonia, the leading cause of death among children under five. This is unacceptable and cannot go on.”

Access to medical oxygen also supports treatment of severe malaria, advanced HIV disease, and tuberculosis. Full access to oxygen, as well as pulse oximeters—portable devices that estimates the oxygen saturation of patient’s blood —could reduce mortality from all causes among hospitalized children by as much as 40 percent.

“Access to medical oxygen and respiratory care is a key component of a resilient and sustainable health system and a critical element of pandemic preparedness,” said Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund. “Our renewed alliance with global health partners will help ensure that high-quality medical oxygen services are accessible and affordable to all in low- and middle-income countries. Sustained investments in oxygen delivery systems will save lives now and build surge capacity against future threats.”

GO2AL is also closely collaborating with the Lancet Global Health Commission on Medical Oxygen Security, launched in September 2022 to address major gaps in oxygen research, mobilise a broad coalition to accelerate delivery of medical oxygen and reduce mortality and morbidity globally.

“Affected communities welcome the Global Oxygen Alliance initiative.  Through this platform we are confident that access to medical oxygen will be treated with the urgency it deserves,” said Maureen Murenga, Executive Director, Lean On Me Foundation and Communities Constituency, GO­2AL. “And that there will be global solidarity and political commitment embracing recent innovation to ensure that, regardless of anyone’s geographical location or economic status, we are able to access the much-needed life commodity.  We have the opportunity to save the millions of lives lost each year from hypoxemia.”

GO2AL was established in April 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 the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and Unitaid sharing the secretariat.

Members of the ACT-A Oxygen Emergency Task Force have chosen to join GO2AL, including: Access to Medicine Foundation; Africa CDC; Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Clinton Health Access Initiative; The Every Beath Counts Coalition; The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; PAHO; PATH; Save the Children; UNICEF; Unitaid; UNOPS; USAID; WHO; and the World Bank. New members, including representation from low- and middle-income countries, civil society and communities, are being invited as GO2AL strives to build a stronger and a more diverse and inclusive membership.

Related publications:

  • For more information about GO2AL and its new Strategy: executive summary, please visit the GO2AL website.
  • For more information about GO2AL’s launch event, please click here.

Check out the Photo Album from the launch session:

Increasing access to medical oxygen: Action to ensure sustained gains

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Notes to editors:

Unitaid is a global health agency engaged in finding innovative solutions to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases more quickly, affordably, and effectively, in low- and middle-income countries. Its work includes funding initiatives to address major diseases such as HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, cervical cancer, hepatitis C and other priority health conditions affecting women and children. Unitaid is now applying its expertise to address challenges in advancing new therapies and diagnostics for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, building on its leadership role in the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator. Unitaid is hosted by the World Health Organization.

The Global Fund is a worldwide partnership to defeat HIV, TB and malaria and ensure a healthier, safer, more equitable future for all. We raise and invest more than US$4 billion a year to fight the deadliest infectious diseases, challenge the injustice which fuels them and strengthen health systems in more than 100 of the hardest hit countries. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have invested an additional US$5 billion to fight the new pandemic and reinforce systems for health. We unite world leaders, communities, civil society, health workers and the private sector to find solutions that have the most impact, and we take them to scale worldwide. Since 2002, the Global Fund partnership has saved 50 million lives.

Africa CDC is a continental autonomous health agency of the African Union (AU) established to support public health initiatives of AU Member States and strengthen the capacity of public health institutions to detect, prevent, control and respond quickly and effectively to disease threats. Africa CDC serves Member States through the AU New Public Health Order which calls for action-oriented respectful partnership as one its core pillars.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is the specialized international health agency for the Americas, and serves as the Regional Office for the Americas of the World health Organization. It works with countries throughout the region to improve and protect people’s health. PAHO engages in technical cooperation with its member countries to fight communicable and noncommunicable diseases and their causes, to strengthen health systems, and to respond to emergencies and disasters. It has 35 Member States and four Associate Members in the region. Under their leadership, PAHO sets regional health priorities and mobilizes action to address health problems that respect no borders and that, in many cases, jeopardize the sustainability of health systems. From its Washington, D.C., headquarters, 27 country offices and three specialized centers in the region, PAHO promotes evidence-based decision-making to improve and promote health as a driver of sustainable development. Additional info: https://www.paho.org/en/who-we-are

UNICEF works in the world’s toughest places to reach the most disadvantaged children and adolescents – and to protect the rights of every child, everywhere. Across more than 190 countries and territories, we do whatever it takes to help children survive, thrive and fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence. The world’s largest provider of vaccines, we support child health and nutrition, safe water and sanitation, quality education and skill building, HIV prevention and treatment for mothers and babies, and the protection of children and adolescents from violence and exploitation.Before, during and after humanitarian emergencies, UNICEF is on the ground, bringing lifesaving help and hope to children and families. Non-political and impartial, we are never neutral when it comes to defending children’s rights and safeguarding their lives and futures. Additional information: https://www.unicef.org/what-we-do

The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States across six regions, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and well-being.  For updates on COVID-19 and public health advice to protect yourself from coronavirus, visit www.who.int and follow WHO on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat, YouTube, Twitch. Additional information on WHO’s work on oxygen: www.who.int/health-topics/oxygen.

Contact WHO Media Team: mediainquiries@who.int

Boosting medical oxygen supplies in the Democratic Republic of Congo

World Pneumonia Day: Unitaid’s work to enhance global access to medical oxygen will contribute to reducing childhood mortality

Geneva – On World Pneumonia Day 2022, Unitaid reaffirms its commitment to address global inequities in access to medical oxygen as a key driver to reduce the number of deaths in children under five years old.

Despite being preventable and curable, pneumonia, an acute form of respiratory infection, remains the world’s biggest infectious killer of children under-5 years, accounting for more than 740,000 deaths in 2019, mostly in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Coupled with antibiotics, medical oxygen could save the lives of many children who develop severe pneumonia. But many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) face serious challenges in accessing safe and affordable oxygen.

Even before the pandemic, it was estimated that 9 in 10 hospitals in LMICs lacked access to life-saving oxygen therapy. COVID-19 has only worsened this situation, leading to many preventable deaths and straining fragile health systems.

Challenges for accessing safe and affordable oxygen are multiple and can range from availability, quality, affordability, management, supply, human resources capacity and safety.

Unitaid has invested US$ 130 million to date to secure sustainable access to oxygen and expand access to pulse oximeters, essential life-saving portable devices that can detect when medical oxygen is needed. This work could potentially save the lives of as many as 320,000 pneumonia deaths a year, according to the World Health Organization estimates.

Unitaid has been addressing access to medical oxygen since 2019 through a diverse portfolio of investments including piloting pulse oximetry and fever management at primary health care level to identify and refer critically ill children to hospitals without delay, advancing improved non-invasive ventilation strategies for newborns and oxygen concentrator technologies.

Spearheading progress through market shaping interventions (improved affordability, increased production capacity and accelerated equipment delivery times), technical support and capacity building, Unitaid and partners are also leading efforts to scale-up access and availability to medical oxygen, implementing adequate and sustainable oxygen solutions in LMICs.

Among key achievements, Unitaid has supported oxygen needs assessments in 51 countries, has contributed to securing price reductions for liquid oxygen following unprecedent agreement with two major gas companies that enabled other scale-up partners to secure increased access with the same funding levels, and has ensured sufficient oxygen supply by installing or repairing oxygen production plants and piping systems and other respiratory care equipment.

Increasing the availability of medical oxygen commodities and ensuring a sustainable oxygen ecosystem will enable greater impact of Unitaid’s work to both improve child survival with triage and treatment tools and help respond to future global health emergencies, two programmatic priorities of Unitaid’s strategy 2023-2027.

Boosting medical oxygen supplies in the Democratic Republic of Congo

For more information:

Sarah Mascheroni

mascheronisa@unitaid.who.int

For media requests:

Maggie Zander

Communications officer

M: +41 79 593 17 74

zanderm@unitaid.who.int

The Republic of Korea reaffirms its strong support to Unitaid to ensure equitable access to health tools

Dr Philippe Duneton, Executive Director of Unitaid and Marisol Touraine, Chair of Unitaid’s Executive Board with Mr. Park Yong Min, Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs (left) and Mr. Won Do-Yeon, Director-General of the Cooperation Bureau and Unitaid Board Member (right).

 

Geneva – Unitaid welcomes the contribution of US$5 million from the Republic of Korea to support the implementation of its new strategy.

The Republic of Korea has supported Unitaid’s essential role in the fight against HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and, more recently, COVID-19 as a key donor and member of the Executive Board since 2007.

This latest commitment of funding builds on an US$80 million total contribution from the Republic of Korea since Unitaid’s inception, including support to Unitaid’s COVID-19 response work as part of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A).

“The Republic of Korea strongly appreciates Unitaid’s work in ensuring access to health innovations and will continue to strengthen its cooperation with Unitaid,” said Mr. Park Yong Min, Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs.

Unitaid is grateful for the Republic of Korea’s longstanding support and renewed financial contribution. We value the Republic of Korea’s leadership in global health driven by the Korean biotechnology companies’ excellent R&D and manufacturing capacity,” said Marisol Touraine, Chair of Unitaid’s Executive Board.

The funding commitment was announced on the sidelines of the World Bio Summit, co-hosted by the Republic of Korea and the World Health Organization.

For media requests:

Maggie Zander

Communications officer

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zanderm@unitaid.who.int

Canada contributes Can$ 25 million to Unitaid to expand sustainable access to medical oxygen

Geneva and New York City – Unitaid welcomes Canada’s contribution of Can$ 25 million to support the organization’s work to boost access to medical oxygen in low- and middle-income countries, to support the COVID-19 response and future health emergencies.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced this new funding on the sidelines of the Global Fund Seventh Replenishment Pledging Session, during the UN General Assembly in New York.

Canada’s significant contribution aims to support the efforts of the Oxygen Emergency Taskforce to further increase access to liquid oxygen, lower costs of gas and equipment, strengthen infrastructure, expand technical capacity, and ensure safe use of medical oxygen in low- and middle-income countries. It will help expand sustainable access to adequate and affordable oxygen solutions, and support countries to develop strategic national oxygen roadmaps and prepare for future health threats.

With this additional funding, Canada has provided Can$ 60 million to Unitaid for equitable access to COVID-19 treatments, including oxygen, through the ACT-Accelerator.

Dr. Philippe Duneton, Executive Director of Unitaid, said: “No one should die because of a lack of medical oxygen. I am very grateful to Canada for this important contribution to the work Unitaid is leading with partners to address global inequities in access to this essential medicine. The new funding will help save lives now and prepare the world for future health emergencies.”

Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau and Dr. Philippe Duneton, Executive Director of Unitaid

Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau and Dr. Philippe Duneton, Executive Director of Unitaid

Oxygen is an essential medicine used to treat many conditions affecting newborns, children, and adults. It is a vital treatment for severe COVID-19 with an estimated 75% of people hospitalized who can survive with oxygen therapy alone. Investing in oxygen now will save lives beyond the pandemic by strengthening health systems and significantly reducing deaths among newborns, children and women in childbirth. It will continue to be a core tool for future health emergencies.

Unitaid has been addressing access to medical oxygen since 2019 through a diverse portfolio of investments including piloting pulse oximetry and fever management at primary health care level to identify and refer critically ill children to hospitals, advancing improved non-invasive ventilation strategies for newborns and oxygen concentrator technologies.

Unitaid is chairing the Oxygen Emergency Taskforce established in February 2021 to drive the multilateral oxygen support effort and is co-leading the ACT-Accelerator’s Therapeutics pillar with the Global Fund and Wellcome.

For more information:

Sarah Mascheroni

mascheronisa@unitaid.who.int

For media requests:

Maggie Zander

Communications officer

M: +41 79 593 17 74

zanderm@unitaid.who.int

Next generation pulse oximeters have great potential to reduce maternal and child mortality, PATH and Unitaid report says

A technology and market landscape report by PATH and Unitaid

To date, maternal and child mortality rates remain unacceptably high. In 2020, still over 5 million children under 5 years of age died, mostly in low- and middle-income countries, and mostly from conditions that are preventable or treatable, such as pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and preterm birth complications.

To reach maternal and child global health targets by 2030[1], equitable access to innovative devices that have the potential to support health care workers in low-resource settings as they make decisions and provide fit-for-purpose treatment solutions, is urgently needed.

Pulse oximeters (POs) are noninvasive devices that measure blood oxygen saturation and pulse rate. They are used to help health care workers detect hypoxemia – a low level of oxygen in the blood – and to know how much oxygen to administer to patients. Detecting hypoxemia can allow timely treatment with oxygen therapy and save hundreds of thousands of lives each year.

The PATH-Unitaid technology and market landscape report, launched today, reviews the nascent global market for the next generation of pulse oximetry – multimodal POs.

These devices expand the features of standard POs by collecting additional clinical measurements, such as respiratory rate, temperature, and/or haemoglobin integrated into a single device that is appropriate for use in low-resource settings. These promising products can provide objective measurements to caregivers, via the same device and at the same time, to support clinical decision-making and ultimately save lives.

The report analyzes existing and emerging products and aims to assess their potential to improve screening for various illnesses that affect maternal and child health in low- and middle-income countries.

The report also examines market and technological challenges that hamper the adoption, scale-up and wide access in low-resource settings to these potentially lifesaving tools and maps out opportunities to overcome barriers limiting equitable access, including issues related to quality, availability, affordability, demand and supply.

Multimodal POs that are affordable, high-quality, and appropriately designed have the potential to achieve meaningful impact.

In addition to reducing mortality, multimodal POs could further optimize efficient use of resources and reduce the overall strain on health systems by minimizing the need for costly testing, strengthening referral decisions, and reducing unnecessary hospitalizations, intensive therapy, and overuse of antibiotic treatments.

In its work to address fever management and promote the adoption and scale-up of POs in primary health care, Unitaid has a portfolio of two complimentary grants for this purpose. Namely, Améliorer l’Identification des Détresses Respiratoire chez l’Enfant (AIRE) led by the Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA) and Tools for Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (TIMCI), led by PATH.

As part of the broader TIMCI project, PATH is currently initiating an evaluation and operational research study to assess performance and feasibility of using these tools by primary health care providers in Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uttar Pradesh, India.

Over the past four years, Unitaid and PATH have worked together to expand access to high-quality POs and clinical decision support algorithms to enable primary health care workers to better identify severely ill children and refer them for appropriate treatment without delay. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the need for reliable access to such devices as part of sustainable and equitable oxygen delivery system even more to light.

  • Access the Next Generation Pulse Oximeters Technology and Market Landscape here

[1] Sustainable Development Goal 3: Target 3.1, By 2030, reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births. Target 3.2, By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age, with all countries aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1,000 live births and under‑5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births.

Related projects and publications:

For more information:

Sarah Mascheroni

mascheronisa@unitaid.who.int

For media requests:

Maggie Zander

Communications officer

M: +41 79 593 17 74

zanderm@unitaid.who.int

Next generation pulse oximeters technology and market landscape

Unitaid and the Government of Kenya strengthen collaborative partnership to advance global health goals 

Nairobi/Geneva – Global health agency Unitaid and the Government of Kenya are launching a newly reinforced cooperation, with a memorandum of understanding between the two parties signed in Nairobi.

Over its decade and a half history, Unitaid has worked closely with Kenyan partners to enable affordable, equitable, and rapid access to game-changing health innovations for those who need them. These include early infant HIV diagnostics, best-in-class antiretroviral drugs for adults and children with HIV, child-friendly tuberculosis (TB) medicines, cutting-edge screen-and-treat solutions for cervical cancer, indoor sprays to curb malaria, and access to COVID-19 tests and medical oxygen, among many others.

The agreement will further improve alignment between Unitaid investments and Kenyan health priorities, enable early access to innovations, and strengthen capacity of Kenyan health services, systems, research institutions and manufacturers.

“Unitaid’s collaboration with Kenya dates from its very beginnings 15 years ago. Nearly 80% of Unitaid’s US$1.5 billion currently invested supports work on the African continent. Kenya is a close partner in these efforts – both as one of the countries where the greatest number of Unitaid projects are running, and as one of the quickest countries to adopt and scale up critical health innovations,” said Dr Philippe Duneton, Executive Director of Unitaid. “This partnership will further advance our shared goals to improve health in Kenya and beyond.”

“Advances in health innovations hold game-changing potential when implemented widely and equitably, but ensuring products reach the last mile is far from guaranteed. This is why our partnership with Unitaid is so valuable: together we will design the most impactful solutions so no one is left behind,” “said Sen. Mutahi Kagwe, Cabinet Secretary for Health of the Republic of Kenya.

Joint efforts will focus on advancing sustainable approaches to reduce the burdens of HIV, TB, malaria, cervical cancer, hepatitis and COVID-19, improve the health of women and children, increase regional and domestic manufacturing of essential health products and strengthen pandemic preparedness and response efforts.

Media contact:

For more information and media requests:

Maggie Zander

Communications officer

M: +41 79 593 17 74

zanderm@unitaid.who.int