NEW YORK/BRUSSELS, MAY 10, 2021—More must be done to ensure people with COVID-19 worldwide have access to oxygen, said the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today. As vaccines remain unavailable in the majority of countries worldwide, it is critical that oxygen is available for people who fall ill with COVID-19, as highlighted in an MSF briefing paper released today, “Gasping for Air.”
“Oxygen is the single most important medicine for severe and critical COVID-19 patients, yet oxygen supply is often insufficient because infrastructure has been neglected in lower- and middle-income countries for decades,” said Dr. Marc Biot, MSF director of operations. “Before the pandemic, we saw patients suffering from pneumonia, malaria, sepsis, and a variety of other conditions—as well as far too many premature babies—die due to a lack of medical oxygen. COVID-19 has brought this issue into sharp new focus. Unstable oxygen supplies kill.”