2/3rd of World Population Lacks Access to Medical O2, Mostly in Poor Nations

FIVE billion people, or nearly two-thirds of the world's population, lack access to medical oxygen, with highest inequities in low- and middle-income countries, said a latest Lancet Commission report.

- Kavita Bajeli-Datt @ New Delhi

The report, published in the Lancet Global Health Commission on Medical Oxygen Security, said that 82% of patients worldwide requiring medical oxygen live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and nearly 70% concentrated in south and east Asia, the Pacific and sub-Saharan Africa.

The report is the world's first estimate of how unequally medical oxygen is distributed, gaps in coverage of patients in need, along with costs required to bridge these gaps.