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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Source: All Africa
Giving women the option of using contraception tailored to their individual circumstances is vital to increasing birth control in developing countries, an event heard last week.
Source: All Africa
For many women in Mandera County - a hard to reach, insecure and arid part of North Eastern Kenya - the story of life from childhood to adulthood is one about sheer pain and struggle for survival.
Source: All Africa
The Ministry of Health in collaboration with UNFPA and other partners has launched a "Family Planning Week" in various communities in Montserrado County, distributing contraceptives, including condoms, pills, and injections, among others to teenage girls, students and young mothers to avoid unwanted pregnancy.
Source: All Africa
Asiya Hamed spent much of her life performing female genital mutilation (FGM) on girls in her community. She cannot remember how many girls she has cut, but she knows what the consequences have been.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Maternal and newborn deaths in Sierra Leone have soared since the Ebola outbreak in West Africa as fear of being infected and mistrust of health workers deter pregnant women from giving birth in health facilities, researchers said on Tuesday.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
When Sokhna Aminatou Sarr started menstruating, as a young girl in Senegal who had not yet reached her teenage years, her mother warned that she would become pregnant if she went near any boys.
Source: Graphic
The First Lady, Mrs Lordina Mahama, has called on all stakeholders in the health sector to intensify their efforts and work together to address challenges associated with the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV and reproductive health needs of girls and mothers.
Source: All Africa
Many South African women are still resorting to unsafe abortions with illegal providers, often with disastrous implications even though safe legal abortion has been available since 1997.
Source: All Africa
The exceptional leadership of the government in the efforts to improve maternal and new-born health was commended by the UN H4+ Global Team mission that visited Ethiopia from 17-21 August 2015.
Source: All Africa
There have been 32,000 new HIV infections since 2009, according to Uganda Aids Commission (AIC). This was contained in a speech delivered by Church of Uganda Archbishop Stanley Ntagali, at the high level review meeting on HIV/Aids, maternal and reproductive health, and gender violence prevention programmes, held at Hotel Africana in Kampala, on Thursday.
Source: SouthAfrica.info
Thobeka Madiba-Zuma, South Africa's first lady, has used her presence in New York City, where she is attending the 70th session of the United Nation General Assembly (UNGA), to promote women's health awareness.Two issues relevant to women's health, namely cancer, especially cervical and breast cancer, and HIV prevention and treatment, were in focus.