Cheap drugs could cut deaths in childbirth in Africa, say researchers

The lives of a third of the women who die in childbirth could be saved if a cheap and common drug to prevent hemorrhage, together with antibiotics, were readily available in their villages, according to a paper published in one of the world’s top medical journals, the Lancet.

If Aids has been battled into something of a corner – with HIV infection leveling off in some poor countries – it has much to do with the noisy global campaign to get antiretroviral drugs to millions of people in Africa. Mathematician Dr Christina Pagel and global health specialist Anthony Costello, from University College London, believe a roll-out of much more common, cheap and simpler pills to communities in Africa and Asia would have a dramatic impact on the death rates among mothers.

Deaths in childbirth are a major focus now of the global health community, and a cause championed by the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, at the UN last week. Brown is pushing for free healthcare in poor countries, which would save the lives of many impoverished women and children.

The focus of the safe childbirth movement is on improving and increasing care in clinics and maternity units. That is hugely important argue Pagel and Costello, but in remote areas like Katine, in north-east Uganda, where the healthcare facilities are inadequate, badly stocked or too distant, thousands of lives could be saved if efforts were made to ensure the basic, cheap drugs were accessible.

Source: Africa daily