COVID-19 has once again shown the importance of oxygen to a strong public health system. On average, 20 percent of hospitalized COVID patients require oxygen, and in many cases, it is the only intervention that saves lives. With COVID-19 overwhelming even the most robust health systems, rapidly scaling up oxygen delivery capacity in low-resource settings is the best way to avert unnecessary death.

OxBox is Build Health International’s (BHI) solution to this challenge. Oxbox is a cost-effective, rapidly-deployable solution addressing the two biggest barriers to oxygen delivery: cost and unreliable electricity. These barriers are particularly acute for small and midsize inpatient facilities, which lack budgets for large on-site oxygen plants, but also face interruptions to power supply that typically render bedside oxygen concentrators ineffective. In 2015, the WHO found only one third of health facilities in sub-Saharan Africa had “reliable” access to electricity.

Oxbox solves this problem by packaging and delivering existing, time-tested components: five bedside concentrators capable of delivering oxygen at a rate of 10 liters per minute; a lithium-ion Tesla Powerwall battery converts intermittent power to a continuous flow, keeping the system running 24/7; and solar array or generator to supplement energy supply where electrical grids are particularly unreliable.

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