Gasping for life: Pandemic shows how oxygen access divides world’s rich and poor. By lhinnant carleypetesch pulitzercenter.
In wealthy Europe and North America, hospitals treat oxygen as a fundamental need, much like water or electricity. It is delivered in liquid form by tanker truck and piped directly to the beds of coronavirus patients. Running short is all but unthinkable for a resource that literally can be pulled from the air.
It was apparently too little and too late. Within hours, he was dead. Six weeks later, his coronavirus test came back positive. “One life is not worth more than another,” she said from her home in Atlanta. “They will have to live with their conscience.”For many severe COVID patients, hypoxia — radically low blood-oxygen levels — is the main danger. Only pure oxygen in large quantities buys the time they need to recover. Oxygen is also used for the treatment of respiratory diseases such as pneumonia, the single largest cause of death in children worldwide.
Unlike for vaccines, clean water, contraception or HIV medication, there are no global studies to show how many people lack oxygen treatment — only broad estimates that suggest at least half of the world’s population does not have access to it. Tannu Rahman, a housewife, waited three days to get a cylinder of oxygen for her brother-in-law, who has been infected with coronavirus in the capital, Dhaka. Rahman said they were in complete despair as “nobody came forward,” even though she offered to pay twice the regular price.
She said her sister-in-law’s aunt died Sunday, 30 minutes after an oxygen provider refused to refill a tank the family had bought elsewhere. Some places have made progress, largely thanks to local activists who have pushed for more oxygen plants and better access outside just the largest cities. Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda all have made it a priority, according to Dr. Bernard Olayo of the Center for Public Health and Development in East Africa.
Guinea’s landscape ranges from coastlines to hills to rainforests, with sparse dusty unpaved roads that fill with water in the rain. In a good all-terrain vehicle, crossing Guinea takes four days; in the rainy season, much longer. In mid-June, at least two people tested positive for COVID-19 there. One was driven more than six hours by ambulance for treatment, according to Sangaredi Mayor Mamadou Bah.
He said the coronavirus crisis is a chance for international donors and governments alike to invest in the long term “so that we’re ready for the next pandemic.”Liquid oxygen is what wealthy countries largely use. Air is chilled to minus 186 degrees Celsius, so that the oxygen condenses into a liquid in much the same way dew forms in cool night air. It is then pumped into a truck-sized double-thick vacuum flask on wheels and sent to hospitals. There, pumps warm it back into a gas.
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Scarce medical oxygen worldwide leaves many gasping for lifeCONAKRY, Guinea (AP) — Guinea’s best hope for coronavirus patients lies inside a neglected yellow shed on the grounds of its main hospital: an oxygen plant that has never been turned on....
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Scarce medical oxygen worldwide leaves many gasping for lifeCONAKRY, Guinea (AP) — Guinea’s best hope for coronavirus patients lies inside a neglected yellow shed on the grounds of its main hospital: an oxygen plant that has never been turned on....
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Scarce medical oxygen worldwide leaves many gasping for lifeFrom AP Morning Wire: • Dr. Fauci: Next weeks critical to tamping down US virus spikes. • Scarce medical oxygen around world. • Police officer involved in Breonna Taylor’s fatal shooting fired. • Trump-backed House candidates lose in KY, NC. SIGN UP:
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Scarce medical oxygen worldwide leaves many gasping for lifeCONAKRY, Guinea (AP) — Guinea’s best hope for coronavirus patients lies inside a neglected yellow shed on the grounds of its main hospital: an oxygen plant that has never been turned on....
Lire la suite »
Scarce medical oxygen worldwide leaves many gasping for lifeFrom AP Morning Wire: • Dr. Fauci: Next weeks critical to tamping down US virus spikes. • Scarce medical oxygen around world. • Police officer involved in Breonna Taylor’s fatal shooting fired. • Trump-backed House candidates lose in KY, NC. SIGN UP:
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