National Oxygen Scale-Up Framework-Meeting: Road to Oxygen Access Statement
In 2023, the World Health Assembly adopted the landmark Increasing Access to Medical Oxygen Resolution. In Dakar Senegal, 100 governments are currently meeting to discuss how best to implement the specific actions in their respective countries. As organizations deeply committed to ensuring reliable access to oxygen in every part of the world, we call on the delegations to commit to the Resolution in its entirety.
Oxygen is an essential medicine necessary to help often the most vulnerable patients in a community like infants and women. Medical oxygen is used to treat of a wide range of communicable and non-communicable diseases and for injuries that together are killing 25 million people every year; 40% of all human deaths according to the Global Burden of Disease.
Clause 2 of the WHO Oxygen Resolution urges all Member States to “develop costed national plans to increase access to quality assured, affordable medical oxygen systems and personnel to meet the identified needs of all patients.”
Oxygen concentrators are important devices in any country’s oxygen roadmap. They are small, portable, and easily deployed during surge requirements. With a proper maintenance program, they are an inexpensive way to make oxygen accessible in less traveled areas for years. With the latest upgrades, for the first time ever, a device has been developed for clinical use in harsh environments.
Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare and Sanrai International, have partnered to provide the PulmO2, A New Generation of Oxygen Concentrator, Fit for Purpose Worldwide. The first 10L oxygen concentrator developed in line with the UNICEF Target Product Profile, the PulmO2 is energy efficient, resilient, and adapted to a clinical environment. We hope that the global community will use this new device in their oxygen infrastructure to bring oxygen to millions of patients in need in all parts of the world. We stand ready as a partner to any country wanting to understand this new technology and how it can be successfully deployed in their context. Together, we can ensure millions of patients have access to life saving oxygen and will never again feel the effects without.