Medical equipment, including trauma and health supplies, will be arriving in Poland Thursday for transfer to Ukraine, the World Health Organization has said. It has also ordered medical oxygen that will be arriving via plane in Poland.
Early this week, WHO sounded the alarm on depleting medical oxygen supply in Ukraine, which is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis amid an escalating conflict with Russia.
WHO Regional Emergency Director for Europe Dr. Gerald Rockenschaub told Devex via email that the agency is working with health authorities to identify the country’s “immediate oxygen supply surge needs, assuming a 20% to 25% increase over previous needs before the crisis escalated last week.”
Medical oxygen is crucial for patients with COVID-19, and those with other critical illnesses, those with pregnancy or birth complications, chronic conditions, sepsis, injuries, and trauma.
“Hospitals are fast running out of medical oxygen supplies. Some have already run out,” Rockenschaub said. “If patients cannot get oxygen, they will simply die, and their deaths are entirely preventable.”
He said WHO is storing oxygen in Poland as well as other medical supplies “for easy movement to Ukraine.”
“Our priority now [is] getting medical supplies rapidly into Ukraine. The security of our staff is also a priority and while we are working to keep operations up and running, we want to make sure staff is safe,” he added.
WHO is working with the governments of Poland and Ukraine for the opening of a land corridor to safely transport supplies to hospitals and health facilities in the conflict-affected country.
Ukraine’s health system was already fragile prior to Russia’s military offensive. Vaccination rates in the country were also low even before the crisis, with less than 4 in 10 people having completed their full vaccination for COVID-19, according to Rockenschaub.
With oxygen supplies running “dangerously low” and as most hospitals have exhausted their oxygen reserves, it will be “very difficult” to treat critically ill patients with COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses, he said.
He also expressed concerns on the impact of the crisis on COVID-19 transmission, saying that adherence to public health measures to curb COVID-19 transmission amid the crisis “are almost impossible to follow.” Health system failures and people’s living conditions could result in a COVID-19 surge, but also other outbreaks such as polio, measles, rubella, and food and water-borne diseases.
“If patients cannot get oxygen, they will simply die, and their deaths are entirely preventable.”
— Dr. Gerald Rockenschaub, regional emergency director for Europe, WHO“While we are observing a downward trend [in COVID-19 cases], a significant deterioration in the security situation could change the dynamics with potential displacement and population movement creating higher infection rates as well as disruptions in surveillance, vaccination, detection, public health measures, testing and clinical care system that could result in higher mortality, especially in those areas seeing the most fighting,” Rockenschaub said.
According to the latest UN Refugee Agency figures, the number of refugees from Ukraine had reached 677,000 as of Tuesday, with more than half in Poland, and more waiting at the border. UNHCR estimates the number of refugees to reach 4 million.
Protect health care, says WHO
The regional emergency director also called for the protection of health care — including workers, patients, supplies, transport, and facilities — amid reports of attacks on health facilities in Ukraine. He underscored the need for the “sanctity and safety” of health care to be “respected and remain neutral.”
“We have received several unconfirmed reports of attacks on hospitals and health infrastructure, and one verified”, Rockenschaub said.
“We are currently in the process of verifying several other incidents. Attacks on health facilities and personnel are a violation of international humanitarian law and a crime against humanity,” he added.
According to Human Rights Watch, a Russian ballistic missile struck just outside a hospital in Vuhledar town in eastern Ukraine, killing four civilians and injuring 10 people, six of them are health workers.
Update, March 3, 2022: This article has been updated to clarify that shipments will arrive Thursday according to WHO update.
About the author
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
