Kinshasa – In her small workplace at College Clinics of Kinshasa, nurse Agnès Bisilwala has her eyes skilled on a row of huge gasoline cylinders. “Previously, three or 4 days might go by with out sufficient medical oxygen for our COVID-19 sufferers in intensive care,” she says. “A lot of them have been unable to take care of their oxygenation and succumbed to the virus.”

That every one modified in the beginning of August this yr when a brand new plant started producing important provides of high-quality medical oxygen simply metres away from nurse Bisilwala’s workplace inside the premises of the College of Kinshasa, the place she has headed the intensive care unit for 21 years.  

With monetary help from UNITAID, World Well being Group (WHO) has piloted the development of two medical oxygen manufacturing vegetation within the Democratic Republic of Congo this yr.

The plant on the College Clinics of Kinshasa is already producing sufficient oxygen to fill 88 47.2-litre cylinders every single day, greater than double the hospital’s typical day by day want. The second plant is about to turn out to be operational inside the Sino-Congolese Friendship Hospital, which is positioned to the southeast of Kinshasa, within the coming weeks.

These two institutions have been chosen to deal with the brand new oxygen manufacturing vegetation due to their standing as reference hospitals able to supplying different secondary well being amenities, in addition to for his or her means to handle extreme circumstances.

On the peak of the pandemic, each hospitals hosted devoted therapy centres for COVID-19 sufferers. Nevertheless, demand for high quality oxygen for these in crucial situation quickly exceeded the centres’ capability. “We have been utilizing small oxygen concentrators, and it was very troublesome to supply sufficient oxygen for sufferers in respiratory misery, who can every devour as much as ten 50-litre cylinders a day,” says nurse Bisilwala.

A month on from the commissioning of the brand new plant, Dr Bertain Nsitwa, the undertaking supervisor, reiterates the numerous adjustments it has already caused. “Earlier than, we purchased the oxygen from a manufacturing facility in Kingabwa, greater than 15 km away. The transport prices have been exorbitant, and the oxygen stage was solely 30% to 50%, which typically worsened the state of sufferers’ well being. In distinction, the oxygen provided by the newly constructed plant has a purity of 92% to 96%,” he says.

By offering increased high quality oxygen at a decrease price and in higher portions, the brand new facility will assist tackle shortages throughout Kinshasa, the place demand stays excessive, at the same time as COVID-19 circumstances are at present on the decline, in keeping with official statistics. “This plant can actually save lives,” says Faustin Ngankuey, an engineer in command of operations on the College Clinics of Kinshasa facility.

In anticipation of potential additional COVID-19 pandemic waves, work is now underway on a 3rd manufacturing facility in Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu. This unit would then be capable to present high-quality medical oxygen to many different medical amenities positioned within the east of the nation, together with within the cities of Bukavu, Beni and Butembo, which at present don’t have any such provides. Different initiatives, funded by the World Financial institution, the Worldwide International Fund and the Clinton Well being Entry Initiative are underway.

“Many lives have been misplaced and households bereaved because of the dearth of medical oxygen in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Dr Amédée Prosper Djiguimdé, WHO Consultant within the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “Whereas WHO beforehand supplied a number of dozen medical concentrators for the administration of extreme circumstances of the virus within the nation, the wants have been immense. This necessary partnership with UNITAID for manufacturing in Kinshasa, and really quickly in Goma, utterly adjustments the state of affairs.”

Along with serving COVID-19 sufferers, elevated efforts by WHO to supply oxygen help within the Democratic Republic of the Congo will even contribute to the therapy of different illnesses, resulting in a much-needed general strengthening of native well being methods.