As COVID-19 continues its spread globally, the scarcity of medical supplies is also heightening. In particular ‘personal protective equipment’ (PPE), an essential component in confronting highly infectious diseases. Currently, demand for medical supplies far exceeds availability. Bans placed on PPE exports by supplier countries coupled with the following surge in PPE prices have caused further disruptions. In response to this supply disruption, countries are looking for domestic opportunities to fulfill their PPE requirements by retooling production lines and re-shoring local supply chains.
PPE products include gloves, masks, eye protection and body protection suits, as well as disease testing kits, hand sanitisers, body bags and chlorine tablets. The need for PPE is such that the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates the global COVID-19 response will require 89 million medical masks each month, as well as an additional 76 million examination gloves and 1.6 million goggles. This would imply a 40% increase in global production.
With an adequate supply of PPE, the number of infections can be more readily controlled among essential healthcare workers, who bear the brunt of any shortage, at the frontline of society’s crisis response. At least 20% of healthcare workers in Italy’s Lombardy region – the worst affected in the country – and more than 3,000 healthcare workers in China, contracted the coronavirus. In previous epidemics such as the 2014 Ebola outbreaks in Africa, healthcare workers accounted for up to 25% of infected persons.
But PPE supply chains are in disarray after the most important PPE supplier countries imposed export bans to address their own domestic needs. This includes China, the largest global producer of PPE – and also of key inputs, including the three-ply linen needed to manufacture surgical masks. Other countries have adopted similar export restrictions on gloves, face shields and protective garments. These restrictions have led to a surge in PPE prices, increasing six-fold for surgical masks.
Turning challenge into opportunity
Countries that learned from the SARS and MERS epidemics – South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore – show that advanced preparation can play a critical role in demonstrating national resilience. They systematically planned for future epidemics by stockpiling PPE and building domestic PPE production capabilities. Hospitals were enhanced with dedicated infection control units and regulatory systems were streamlined to enable rapid approval of testing kits – of which there was no shortage.
Other communities around the world have adapted and overcome PPE challenges through alternative, creative responses from the development of new elastomeric masks to serve as a backup for N95 respirators, to the use of 3D printing capabilities to produce face shields and masks. Using approaches like these, countries have the opportunity to set their own innovative path on a national and society-wide scale by bootstrapping domestic manufacturing of PPE.
For Sub-Saharan nations reliant on global supply chains, COVID-19 disruptions highlight the importance of diversifying — and in some cases re-shoring of local supply chains to cope with the current crisis – and the next. The new reality is a globalised world that could face two to three pandemics every decade. Nigeria has already experienced some focus on its local micromanufacturing industry for the production of masks and other PPE. This might signal an opportunity to industrialize Nigeria’s PPE industry and replace PPE imports over the next few years.
This article was originally published at length on Dalberg’s official website.
