Spending on average $25 a woman annually on sexual and reproductive health services would drastically lower the number of women dying in pregnancy and childbirth, and the number of newborn deaths, says a report that calculates the cost and benefits of healthcare provision. From the Guardian:
The report, published on Thursday by the Guttmacher Institute and the UN population fund, the UNFPA, says $39.2bn (£20.9bn) a year is needed to provide an essential package of services to all women of reproductive age, typically between 15 and 49.
The package includes providing modern methods of contraception for all women who want them, offering the recommended levels of maternal and newborn healthcare, and effective care and support for women whose pregnancies end in miscarriage, stillbirth or abortion. It also includes HIV testing for pregnant women and antiretroviral treatment for those who are HIV-positive, as well as treatment for other sexually transmitted infections.
The payback would equate to: a 70% drop in unintended pregnancies annually, from 74m to 22m (which would in turn reduce the number of abortions and the number of deaths from unsafe abortions); a 67% drop in maternal deaths, from 290,000 to 96,000; a 77% drop in newborn deaths, from almost 3m to 660,000; and a 93% reduction in mother-to-child HIV transmissions.
According to the report, of the 125 million women who give birth each year, 54 million do not make the four antenatal visits recommended by the World Health Organisation. A total of 43 million women do not deliver in a health centre, 21 million need but do not receive care for complications in pregnancy and childbirth, and 33 million newborn babies who need care for complications do not receive it. In addition, more than 500,000 women who are HIV-positive do not receive treatment to prevent transmission of the virus to their child.
Ann Starrs, president and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute, said the report’s key message is that investing in sexual and reproductive healthcare has “huge benefits” for women, and also helps governments and policymakers to reduce their long-term health costs.
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Global Health and Development Beat
Chronic diseases like cancer and heart disease are rising fast in low- and middle-income countries, striking far younger populations than in rich countries and causing much worse outcomes, according to a new report, from CFR.
The UN secretary-general has ruled out any immediate cut in the number of proposed sustainable development goals with the launch on Thursday of his synthesis report, The Road to Dignity by 2030.
After years of following a pattern familiar to bring water to Tanzanians, a new approach emerges with the hope of increasing accountability and, ultimately, access to water.
Scientists at Oxford University have launched the first clinical tests of a new Ebola vaccine approach, using a booster developed by Denmark’s Bavarian Nordic that may improve the effects of a shot from GlaxoSmithKline.
Male Ebola survivors in Liberia are being warned by local health authorities to abstain from sex for at least three months after being discharged from treatment centres, over fears the virus can still be passed on, even once the person has been given a clean bill of health.
GlaxoSmitheKline has opened a £4m grant initiative to researchers on non communicable diseases in Africa.
The World Bank said it would speed up delivery of hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance to fight Ebola in West Africa, as Sierra Leone appealed for help in plugging gaps in its response.
One of the men responsible for discovering the Ebola virus has accused the WHO of taking too long to respond to the most recent epidemic.
Another Egyptian has died of H5N1 bird flu, bringing the total number of deaths in Egypt from the virus to seven this year out of 14 identified cases, the health ministry said.
Panic-buying of food broke out in the central Philippines on Thursday and schools and government offices were shut, as provinces yet to recover from last year’s devastating super-typhoon Haiyan braced for another category 5 storm.
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Spotlight on PSI
Sex sells, even when it comes to safe sex. PSI has been supporting access to condoms through public and private sectors, using a total market approach, from its earliest days. Commercials like these have been a key component of that approach, but they sometimes touch nerves. This particular ad from PSI’s programs in South Africa wasn’t banned, but it was recently ordered to air during later hours of the evening, when children would be least likely to see it. What do you think? Too racy? Too confusing for children? Have a look and tell us in the comments!
Watch the video here.
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Buzzing in the Blogs
The Goats and Soda blog for NPR takes a close look at the mutation of HIV over time. An excerpt:
Over a 10-year period, HIV has picked up mutations that make it slightly less virulent in parts of southern Africa, Goulder and his team reported Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
That means it could take a little longer for some people to develop AIDS if they don’t get HIV treatment. The mutations push back the average time to develop AIDS in Botswana from about 10 years to about 12.5 years, Goulder says.
“It doesn’t sound like a big deal,” he says. “But those changes in the virus occurred in just 10 years. If we roll forward a few decades, the evolution of the virus could have a massive effect. We’ll have to see if the trend continues.”
Right now, though, HIV is still deadly and dangerous, Goulder is quick to point out.
“Although these findings are good news and a step in right direction,” he says, “it may be decades, even centuries, before HIV stops causing AIDS. That’s a long, long way down stream.”
To figure out how HIV has changed over time, Goulder and his team sequenced the virus’ genes from about 2,000 women in Botswana and South Africa. The HIV epidemic started in Botswana about a decade earlier than in South Africa. During those extra 10 years, the virus picked up mutations that help it evade the human immune system.
That sounds like a bad sign. But those mutations came at a cost for the virus, Goulder says: “They crippled HIV.”
The mutations picked up in Botswana slightly slow down the speed at which the virus replicates inside a person’s blood, Goulder and his team found. The speed drop by about 10 percent, on average.
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Capital Events
Friday
9:00 AM – Violence Against Women: Moving Towards Evidence-Based Solutions – IADB
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By Mark Leon Goldberg and Tom Murphy
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Disclaimer: Opinions presented in this email do not necessarily reflect the views of PSI.