77
Hospitals worldwide are short of saline. We can’t just switch to other IV fluids – here’s why
(theconversation.com)
this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2024
77 points (97.5% liked)
Health - Resources and discussion for everything health-related
2315 readers
224 users here now
Health: physical and mental, individual and public.
Discussions, issues, resources, news, everything.
See the pinned post for a long list of other communities dedicated to health or specific diagnoses. The list is continuously updated.
Nothing here shall be taken as medical or any other kind of professional advice.
Commercial advertising is considered spam and not allowed. If you're not sure, contact mods to ask beforehand.
Linked videos without original description context by OP to initiate healthy, constructive discussions will be removed.
Regular rules of lemmy.world apply. Be civil.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Saline is just salt and water, right? I would have assumed you can produce it pretty much everywhere if needed. What's stopping other pharma companies from stepping in?
Sterile environment and processes, mostly.
Salt and water are surely relatively cheap (although salt from your kitchen and water from your tap won't do, you need chemically pure salt and distilled water).
You can make makeshift saline by mixing regular salt in distilled water and autoclaving it at 120°C and 1,2 atm for 30 minutes, but this is not hospital-grade.
I used to work in a hospital, but not in healthcare. But I got a bit of an understanding of some of their logistics.
It's not the materials themselves but making sure everything is shelf-stable and sterile.
That's the expensive part. The raw materials are a fraction of the price.