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Health Senegal30. November 2022

More Oxygen, Less Sickness in This Country

Following the Covid-19 pandemic, more attention is being put on access to oxygen to curb childhood pneumonia in Senegal.

“Before TIMCI, before Covid-19, such equipment, such tools, were just available at higher levels like in hospitals, in health centers. But not in health posts where providers also need these kind of equipment, these kind of tools to better detect severe illness in the early stage,” says Ba, head of pediatric pulmonology at Dakar’s Albert Royer National Children’s Hospital.

2,400 Senegalese children under the age of five died in 2019 due to childhood pneumonia. Though the World Health Organization lists oxygen as an “essential medicine,” many Senegalese treatment centers find themselves without access. In fact, limited supply is part of the reason why childhood pneumonia is considered to be one of the most common infectious causes of death in children worldwide, with over 7 million children afflicted per year.

The government plans to roll out 40 new PSA plants – the units that are responsible for producing oxygen onsite at hospitals – by the end of 2022. Senegal’s supply of oxygen concentrators, oxygen masks, and pulse oximeters increased quite significantly during the pandemic – supplies that can now be used for childhood pneumonia. A study published in 2021 found that bolstering oxygen infrastructure in lesser-developed countries could decrease child pneumonia deaths by almost half.

Source:
Undark

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