The maternal mortality ratio is unacceptably high in Africa. Forty per cent of all pregnancy-related deaths worldwide occur in Africa. On average, over 7 women die per 1,000 live births. About 22,000 African women die each year from unsafe abortion, reflecting a high unmet need for contraception. Contraceptive use among women in union varies from 50 per cent in the southern sub-region to less than 10 per cent in middle and western Africa" UNFPA
Early and unwanted childbearing, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and pregnancy-related illnesses and deaths account for a significant proportion of the burden of illness experienced by women in Africa. Gender-based violence is an influential factor negatively impacting on the sexual and reproductive health of one in every three women. Many are unable to control decisions to have sex or to negotiate safer sexual practices, placing them at great risk of disease and health complications.
According to UNAIDS, there is an estimated of 22.2 million people living with HIV in Sub-Saharan African in 2009, which represents 68% of the global HIV burden. Women are at higher risk than men to be infected by HIV, their vulnerability remains particulary high in the Sub-Saharan Africa and 76% of all HIV women in the world live in this region.
In almost all countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, the majority of people living with HIV are women, especially girls and women aged between 15-24. Not only are women more likely to become infected, they are more severely affected. Their income is likely to fall if an adult man loses his job and dies. Since formal support to women are very limited, they may have to give up some income-genrating activities or sacrifice school to take care of the sick relatives.
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But will South Africa be able to get this figure down further -- in time to achieve its sustainable development goal in 2030?
In a tiny village in Egypt's southern province of Assiut, 16-year-old Amany Shamekh, who wants to be an artist one day, recalls how she was illegally circumcised with a razor blade."The midwife came to the house, my mother took off my underwear and the lady said 'hang in there'," said Shamekh who grew up in the village of Awlad Serag.
On a bright April afternoon last year, the Njala University campus in southern Sierra Leone was brimming with prospective nurses, teachers and social scientists. After their lectures, three students and two teenage friends approached a sowei – the head of a female secret society – to ask for bondo (more widely known as female genital mutilation, or FGM).
After decades of working in HIV and Aids programmes in Tanzania, Dr Yeronimo Mlawa knows it too well why women are more prone to HIV infection than men.
Despite campaigns by different stakeholders on safe motherhood initiatives, Chitipa District Council has registered 65 home deliveries and nine deaths of pregnant women in six months.
AN initiative advocating for safe delivery was launched in Kigoma region yesterday, where it was discovered that only 47 per cent of women give birth in health facilities.
80% of all HIV positive women in the world live in sub-saharan Africa. This is the only region in the world where more women than men are living with HIV — scholars have referred to this phenomenon as the “feminization of HIV.”
The annual international conference for the Association for Fertility and Reproductive Health (AFRH), will hold in Lagos with the theme 'New Frontiers in Reproductive Technology'.
AMSONS Group of Companies has promised to build two more new modern women's ward at Mwananyamala and Temeke hospitals, a move aimed at complementing the government efforts in social development especially in health sector.
MAPUTO, Mozambique – “We are equal to boys and can also contribute to society,” said 17-year-old Lidia Suale Saide. Lidia knows what it means to stand up for these beliefs. One year ago, she refused her mother’s attempt to marry her off. She said she wanted to become a doctor instead.
Female genital mutilation is a violent act that, among other things, causes infection, disease, childbirth complications and death, said the Executive Directors of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in a joint statement for the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).