Patients in Vihiga will benefit from a new oxygen system in a new deal between the county government and partners.
This is after Amref through the support of Global Fund committed to installing medical oxygen infrastructure in health facilities in the county.
The deal will see the facilities benefit from the installation of 250 oxygen cylinders, 17 oxygen splitters, piping and manifold installation as well as six oxygen pulse oximeters.
The Sh50 million project is part of the effort aimed at ensuring that primary healthcare systems are strengthened at the county level.
“The initiative (medical oxygen infrastructure - piping and manifold) will help to strengthen the quality of health services delivery at the county level and ensure that health challenges especially those faced during the Covid-19 period are timely addressed,” Amref said in a tweet.
The Deputy Governor, Wilberforce Kitiezo expressed his gratitude for the project and affirmed his full support and that of Governor Otichillo to make the initiative a success.
The World Health Organisation acknowledges that oxygen is an essential medicine used to care for patients at all levels of the healthcare system, including in surgery, trauma, heart failure, asthma, pneumonia and maternal child care.
“Pneumonia alone accounts for 800,000 deaths per year. It is estimated that 20 to 40 per cent of these deaths could be prevented with the availability of oxygen therapy,” WHO says.
The demand for oxygen has further been accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic which has seen more patients admitted to health facilities with WHO estimating that the need has increased to 1.1 million cylinders in low to middle-income countries alone.
This saw Kenyans pay more for oxygen as the price shot up due to increased demand as a patient in ICU would sometimes need up to three cylinders in a day.
