More than 60% of the world’s population lacks sufficient access to medical oxygen, an essential and life-saving medical intervention with no substitute. Direct Relief is improving access to oxygen therapy around the globe to ensure patients receive respiratory care.
In Brief
Reliable access to medical oxygen is necessary to treat a wide range of conditions across all age groups, including Covid-19, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, heart disease, lung cancer, asthma, and obstetric and neonatal emergencies.
Many people lacking sufficient access to medical oxygen live in low- and middle-income countries. Without resilient oxygen infrastructure, communities around the world are at risk of preventable deaths and remain underprepared for future pandemics.
Direct Relief works with its global network of healthcare partners to strengthen the quality and sustainability of medical oxygen infrastructure, supply chains, and training, ensuring vulnerable patients have reliable access to this essential treatment when they need it most.
A Medical Necessity, Not a Luxury
The Covid-19 pandemic revealed the crucial need for medical oxygen as an essential respiratory therapy, as well as the acute access gaps in many healthcare facilities, which were overwhelmed by patients experiencing respiratory illness. But the need for oxygen extends across the healthcare spectrum, including important applications in surgery, infant health, disaster response, medical transport, and more.
In low- and middle-income countries, adequate oxygen therapy is only accessible to about 30% of people. Significant barriers include people not being able to reach a healthcare facility, a lack of tools or capacity for medical oxygen at these facilities, and high costs for patients.
Improving Access to Medical Oxygen Globally
Direct Relief has invested more than $28 million to expand medical oxygen capacity in the U.S. and abroad, from supplying oxygen concentrators to helping build and repair on-site oxygen plants.
374 million people need medical oxygen each year, most of whom live in low and middle-income countries. Strengthening oxygen infrastructure supports healthcare systems for ongoing health needs and also emergency preparedness. Direct Relief will continue working to make medical oxygen accessible to more people and in more places to support a healthier world.
Medical oxygen efforts are part of Direct Relief’s Health Resiliency Fund, along with cold chain and resilient power.