By Dare Akogun
Clinton Health Access Initiative, CHAI, has stated that availability of Oxygen in Medical Facilities in Nigeria will reduce mortality rate from pneumonia considerably.
Director- Essential Medicines, CHAI Nigeria, Dr. Chizoba Fashanu, stated this while speaking via a zoom call with Sobi FM, where she discussed how CHAI is supporting the Nigerian government to expand access to life-saving oxygen therapy especially for children.
She said since 2016, the Government of Nigeria has demonstrated their commitment to increasing access to oxygen and, with CHAI’s and other partners’ support, has achieved important milestones that will help drive progress throughout the country.
“We started in 2016 in Northern Nigeria where we have the highest rate of death resulting from pneumonia.
“As a first step, the government updated national policies and guidelines to emphasize the importance of oxygen and pulse oximetry for managing patients with hypoxemia, ” she said.
Death from pneumonia can be as high as malaria
Dr Chizoba lamented that despite available data that shows that death from Pneumonia is as high as that for malaria in children, discussion around availability of oxygen at medical facilities is abysmally low.
She however said that thanks to Unitaid, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and other global health partners who have been funding the initiative’s programme in Nigeria, attention of the government is gradually shifting onto the importance of its availability in medical facilities.
“Oxygen availability has often been overlooked due to low levels of awareness despite the fact that it is highly required for human living.
“Pneumonia is the leading killer of children globally, responsible for over 900,000 deaths each year. This infection causes a patient’s lungs to fill with fluid, making it difficult for them to breathe.
“In some cases, this can result in a complication called hypoxemia which is extremely low levels of oxygen in the blood putting the patient at an even greater risk of death.
“While correct diagnosis of both pneumonia and hypoxemia, followed by prompt treatment including oxygen therapy, are essential for preventing these deaths, this often does not happen.
“We are committed to reducing deaths due to hypoxemia and improving patient outcomes. Coordination of efforts across all levels of care is needed to address barriers limiting access to medical oxygen in health facilities in Nigeria”, she said.
She said CHAI worked with the Nigerian government to better understand the availability of oxygen and pulse oximeters (a device used to diagnose hypoxemia and measure oxygen levels in the blood) in health facilities.
Talking about the success of the programme in Nigeria, Dr Chizoba said CHAI has been able to make available equipment to medical facilities which has helped in saving lives that would have hitherto been lost due to underdiagnosis of hypoxemia
“We have been able to procure equipment like a pulse oximeter that makes diagnosis fast and accurate which has reduced the rate of underdiagnosis, and which has improved the health care delivery of these facilities,” she said.
She added that this feat has ensured that the system is strengthened and capacity increased, through providing training for medical personnel.
Dr Chizoba also said its activities and partnership with the government has yielded results with the Federal Ministry of health committing resources for new oxygen generation plants across the country by including its budgetary preparations, and release of funds for the same purpose.
Also speaking, CHAI Senior Associate, Lekia Nwidae said that CHAI is supporting both the national and state governments to build stronger systems that will support and improve availability and use of oxygen, and also strengthen the capacity of the government to deliver on its mandate of accessible basic health care for the citizens.
She also added that CHAI has been helping to build the capacity of medical personnel and also working with the government to identify biomedical engineers and train them on maintenance and repair of equipment.
“We have been able to train a handful of biomedical engineers across the states to ensure different oxygen equipment across the country have experts that can fix and maintain equipment for optimum usage.
“Most states do not have systemic ways of tracking equipment; we helped states set up inventory systems by providing tools to use. The health care workers are also being trained to be able to diagnose hypoxemia and provide oxygen therapy when it is needed.
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