Medical oxygen scarce in Africa and Latin America amid pandemic

25 February 2021, 12:54

A youth rests on his empty oxygen cylinder waiting for a refill shop to open in Lima, Peru
Virus Outbreak Oxygen Shortage. Picture: PA

A global task force focusing on oxygen has been formally announced.

A crisis over the supply of medical oxygen for coronavirus patients has struck nations in Africa and Latin America.

Warnings in the regions went unheeded at the start of the pandemic and doctors say the shortage has led to unnecessary deaths.

It takes about 12 weeks to install a hospital oxygen plant and even less time to convert industrial oxygen manufacturing systems into a medical-grade network. But in Brazil and Nigeria, as well as in less populous nations, decisions to fully address inadequate supplies only started being made last month, after hospitals were overwhelmed and patients started to die.

The gap in medical oxygen availability “is one of the defining health equity issues, I think, of our age,” said Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, who said he survived a severe coronavirus infection thanks to the oxygen he received.

A man carries his empty oxygen tank to be filled in Lima
A man carries his empty oxygen tank to be filled in Lima (Martin Mejia/AP)

Doctors in Nigeria anxiously monitor traffic as oxygen deliveries move through the gridlocked streets of Lagos. Desperate families of patients around the world sometimes turn to the black market.

In Brazil’s Amazonas state, a pair of swindlers were caught reselling fire extinguishers painted to look like medical oxygen tanks. In Peru, people camped out in lines to get cylinders for sick relatives.

Only after the lack of oxygen was blamed for the deaths of four people at an Egyptian hospital in January and six people at one in Pakistan in December did governments address the problems.

John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said medical oxygen is a “huge critical need” across the continent of 1.3 billion people and is a main reason that Covid-19 patients are more likely to die there during surges.

A worker from a private medical service brings oxygen bottles to aid the recovery of a Covid-19 patient at her home in Lagos, Nigeria
A worker from a private medical service brings oxygen bottles to aid the recovery of a Covid-19 patient at her home in Lagos, Nigeria (Sunday Alamba/AP)

Even before the pandemic, sub-Saharan Africa’s 2,600 oxygen concentrators and 69 functioning oxygen plants met less than half the need, leading to preventable deaths, especially from pneumonia, said Dr John Adabie Appiah, of the World Health Organisation.

The number of concentrators has grown to about 6,000, mostly from international donations, but the oxygen produced is not pure enough for the critically ill. The number of plants that can generate higher concentrations is now at 119.

Yet without formal requests from governments, nearly 20 billion US dollars in World Bank coronavirus funds for the world’s poorest countries has been left unspent, the organisation told The Associated Press.

Nigeria was “struggling to find oxygen to manage cases” in January, said Chikwe Ihekweazu, head of its Centre for Disease Control.

A truck transports bottles of oxygen along a street in Lagos, Nigeria
A truck transports bottles of oxygen along a street in Lagos, Nigeria (Lekan Oyekanmi/AP)

A main hospital in Lagos, a city of 14.3 million, saw its January virus cases increase fivefold, with 75 medical workers infected in the first six weeks of 2021. Only then did President Muhammadu Buhari funds to set up 38 more oxygen plants and cash to repair plants at five hospitals.

Some oxygen suppliers have dramatically raised prices, according to a doctor at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital. That has driven up the cost of a cylinder by 10 times to more than the average monthly wage, and a critically ill patient could need up to four cylinders a day.

Leith Greenslade, co-ordinator of the Every Breath Counts Coalition, which advocates for wider access to medical oxygen, said the looming shortages were apparent last spring.

“Very little was done. Now you have a second wave, not just in Africa but in Latin America and Asia, and the oxygen shortages are becoming at crisis levels,” she said.

A global task force focusing on oxygen was formally announced on Thursday and will include the World Health Organisation and World Bank, among others.

By Press Association

Latest World News

See more Latest World News

Buildings that were destroyed during the Israeli ground and air operations in Gaza

Israel expands ground attack on Gaza to seize 'large areas' - despite pleas from hostage families

Police said two people died on Palliser Road, Roseneath.

British couple found dead at home in New Zealand - just months after moving to 'begin new chapter'

Virginia Giuffre warned it was a "very bad situation" after she claimed a school bus ploughed into her car

Virginia Giuffre was charged with breaching restraining order days before crash that 'left her with days to live'

Putin continues to reject Trump's peace plan

'We won't accept Ukraine ceasefire while Zelenskyy remains in power,' Russia warns

Virginia Giuffre

Family of Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre hit out at Australian cops over doubts she has 'days to live'

Luigi Mangione is facing the death penalty for the shooting of United healthcare CEO Brian Thompson

US prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Luigi Mangione in healthcare boss murder case

Emergency services at the scene after an explosion at a building thought to be a gas leak, in Via Pio Foà and Via Vitellia, in Rome, Sunday, March 23, 2025.

Scottish tourist dies after sustaining severe burns in Rome gas explosion that destroyed three-storey hotel

Five Israelis have been cleared after the court ruled the British woman's testimony was not credible

Five tourists accused of gang raping British woman in Ayia Napa hotel cleared after charges dropped

An areal view of the volcanic eruption near the town of Grindavik, on the Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland

Volcanic eruption forces evacuations in Iceland

Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking victim who claimed Prince Andrew sexually abused her given 'four days to live' by doctors

Jeffrey Epstein victim and Prince Andrew accuser issues fresh statement after being given 'four days to live'

President of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) parliamentary group Marine Le Pen

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen vows to fight election ban after embezzlement conviction

President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth

White House says 'Signal chat case is closed' insisting issue has been 'dealt with'

A Taliban security personnel stands guard.

Taliban ask Russia to lift ban on terrorist organisation

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer (L) shakes hands with Finland's President Alexander Stubb

'The UK is back': Finnish president praises Starmer's leadership announcing two nations are 'tied hip-to-hip on Nato'

Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking victim who claimed Prince Andrew sexually abused her given 'four days to live' by doctors

Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking victim who claimed Prince Andrew sexually abused her given 'four days to live'

France's far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been found guilty of misappropriating EU funds

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen jailed for four years and banned from politics after embezzlement trial