The pulse oximeter, a medical device that indirectly monitors the oxygen saturation of a patient's blood, has found a new demand in Bangladesh as many believe it can give them an early warning of a Covid-19 infection.
This new demand had pushed many into panic buying, causing the price of the item to rise and the market to be flooded with fake or substandard oximeters.
However, medical experts say using the instrument at home can give wrong readings and lead to further crisis.
“An oximeter is used to measure the oxygen saturation in the blood of a patient who has breathing problems. Covid-19 or asthma patients may also use it,” Dr Abdur Rahim, a consultant of Kuwait Bangladesh Friendship Government Hospital, told Dhaka Tribune.
Covid-19 infection reduces the oxygen saturation in the blood of many patients. In many cases, the patient needs to be provided with artificial oxygen support. Medical practitioners use oximeters to determine how much oxygen the patient would need.
“Patients with breathing problems use it to know whether they need to go to a hospital for oxygen support. Medical practitioners use it to know when a patient has to be sent to the ICU or whether a patient needs mechanical ventilation,” he said.
“It [oximeter] should not be used without the prescription of a registered medical practitioner. Moreover, it is also very important to know by which company the device is made, whether it is approved or not, original or fake,” he added.
He also said that the instrument is an important medical device and it is unethical to buy and store such devices at home when the country is currently suffering from a shortage of it.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Facebook pages have already begun selling oximeters, mostly Chinese made fakes, on social media to cash in from the panic buying.
At the same time, the price of a single device has been hiked three to four times compared to its usual price.
“The oximeter I bought showed 98% oxygen saturation for all members of my family. The oxygen saturation of 11-month-old niece was shown 98% while my father, who is 71 years old, also had the same. Later, my daughter told me that her pencil’s oxygen saturation level was also 98% after using the pencil instead of her finger into the machine,” Arif R Hossain, a blogger who got cheated while buying an oximeter, wrote in a post on his Facebook account.
“Later, I came to know that the oxygen saturation level of all of our toothbrushes in the house was also 98%, even the oxygen saturation of the tail of monkey doll was the same.”
This correspondent found one Jannatul Islam Sujon selling oximeters on a Facebook page called Mask BD, saying his product was a “certified pulse oximeter” and costs Tk2,000.
Contacted, the man said that his products were certified and he, along with his brother, was selling the product from their Mohammadpur office.
Although Sujon promised a one year warranty for the product, he however, failed to say who or which organization had certified his product.
In reply of a post in Wow Bazar BD, one person mentioned that the price of the product was around Tk800 to Tk850 just five to six months back, but now the price has gone up to Tk1,930 for per device,
This correspondent also found different posts on different pages asking different prices for an oximeter, starting from Tk1900 to Tk3500.
These posts are insisting healthy people buy oximeters during the pandemic by using lucrative advertisements and misinformation.
Not only on social media, but oximeters were also seen being sold by hawkers on footpaths of different areas of Dhaka city.