Concern about the new coronavirus spreading in China has triggered a run on global supplies of equipment used to protect health workers from infection, the World Health Organization said Friday, with stockpiles depleted and producers reporting four- to six-month waits for new supplies.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said demand for personal protective equipment, or PPE as it is called, is 100 times higher than normal and prices have skyrocketed to 20 times usual rates.
Tedros said “widespread, inappropriate use of PPE outside of patient care” is the cause, and he urged the public as well as all parties in the supply chain to adjust their practices to ensure fair and rational use of supplies.
“There is limited stock of PPE, and we need to make sure we get it to the people who need it most, in the places that need it most,” the WHO leader said.
Tedros spoke Friday about the issue with what is known as the “pandemic supply chain network” — manufacturers, distributors and logistics providers. Some companies, he said, have taken the decision to only supply masks to medical professionals.
The concern is less about paper surgical masks, the thin, pleated type seen in TV hospital dramas. It relates instead to hard, domed masks known as N-95 respirators, which are the types needed to protect against the spread of a respiratory pathogen in a hospital setting.
“At every stage of the supply chain there is a possibility for disruption or profiteering or diversion,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, head of WHO’s health emergencies program. “So this is not an easy problem to solve. There are many players, both in the public and private sector.”
But he said it’s critical to ensure supplies are available for the health workers who are or will care for people suffering from infection with the new virus — provisionally called 2019-nCoV.
“We need to start looking at what is the minimum amount of supply that needs to be protected and directed to those institutions and systems that require it for the next number of months,” Ryan said. “If we start to see the normal civilian market being flooded with N-95 and other respirator-type masks and we see doctors and nurses in hospitals not having those, then there is a problem.”
The shortage doesn’t just threaten the safety of health workers responding to the coronavirus epidemic, Ryan said. There could be knock-on effects, with supply shortages impacting the response to Ebola, Lassa fever, and other dangerous pathogens that threaten the health of doctors and nurses who care for the sick.
Fortunately, Ryan said, the WHO had pre-purchased equipment for the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with enough PPE in stock to take the response through to April or May.
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This short supply was obviously foreseeable. It appears to be warranted to enforce better supply management in the health care system, with more on-the-ball and faster pro-active action. And regulators need to step in much, much sooner – when a pandemic with no vaccine or treatment is developing.
Reality check. The degree to which an N95 is “specialized” appears highly variable between countries. In the United States, NIOSH-approved N95s are a workplace standard PPE for persons who do sanding, painting, and a number of other construction / maintenance – related activities that generate aerosols. They are typically available in quantity at any Home Depot, Lowes, Harbor Freight, or other consumer construction-oriented retail outlet. I imagine this is also the case in some other countries that have labor safety regulations that approach or exceed US standards. So, Mike Ryan, the market is actually already saturated in the US and elsewhere with N95-rated masks, though they are selling out quick. Maybe the health sector needs to look more broadly at the manufacturers and distributors of relevant PPE.
Companies that price gouge PPE when out breaks and emergencies occur should be prosecuted and jailed! A human life should come before a buck! “Greed is deadly!”
Yes!
WHO, you are the one to blame why there are short medical PPE supply. WHO drag their feet in declaring coronavirus 2019 was had the capacity to be global epidemic. It this does not spread to other countries, those other countries population would not need to use masks.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PLEASE RESIGN. You are the cause why it had become pandemic now. You have blood on your hand.
Please sign google his name and sign the petition in change.org to make him resign.
Now WHO is asking for more money with 60 million going to WHO budget.
President Trump, do not give this organization a single penny from the 100 Million White House is allocating for coronavirus. Do not spend that money on any corrupt UN organization and please continue to reduce US contribution to UN.
The world can protect itself better without UN. Its inaction does more harm than good.