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: Nyasa Times
Coalition for the Prevention of Unsafe Abortion (COPUA) has persuaded Members of Parliament from Legal Affairs Committee on the need to reform the abortion law in the country to ensure that no woman dies from unsafe abortion.
Source: Global Post
Africa's scientific conference kicked off in Nairobi on Wednesday with Kenya calling on the continent to embrace information technology (IT) to solve myriad problems in the health sector.
Source: Daily Independent
Musicians in two African nations are joining forces with Ipas and other reproductive rights advocates to raise awareness about the dangers of unsafe abortion. In Malawi, the Coalition for the Prevention of Unsafe Abortion (COPUA) collaborated with 11 Malawian musical artists to produce Amayi Akuferanji, an album of reggae, hip-hop and songs from other musical genres highlighting the need for women's access to safe, legal abortion care.
Source: RH Reality Check
Women in Africa have a clear right to abortion—on paper, that is. In 2003, the African Union adopted the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. In doing so, its charter became the only human rights treaty in the world to explicitly outline the right to abortion care. However, although 54 member states of the African Union adopted the protocol and 36 have ratified it, the majority of these governments have done very little to enact reproductive health-care provisions in practice.
Source: RH Reality Check
Women in Africa have a clear right to abortion—on paper, that is. In 2003, the African Union adopted the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.
Source: Global Post
Africa's scientific conference kicked off in Nairobi on Wednesday with Kenya calling on the continent to embrace information technology (IT) to solve myriad problems in the health sector.
Source: ReliefWeb
More than $56 million is urgently needed to provide vital reproductive, maternal and newborn health services in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
This amount, according to UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, will cover the initial six months of the UNFPA-led Mano River Midwifery initiative-a new Ebola-response effort that would increase the number of health workers to ensure that women and girls of childbearing age stay healthy and safe despite the crisis. The funds will also cover the cost of contact-tracing to identify all potential contacts of Ebola cases and help prevent infections.
Source: Open Democracy
Last month the results of a global survey on women living with HIV were published. The survey was designed and conducted by women, and commissioned by the World Health Organisation. Will the findings be acted upon?
Source: mysierraleoneonline.com
Post EVD recovery strategy is currently a high-table agenda of government and development partners in Sierra Leone. Specifically reclaiming girls from the lost paths in the course of their development is in top gear as was demonstrated this past Saturday at the well packed Kissy Town Community Hall in Waterloo, Western Rural District as the Girl Child Network engaged the community in an open dialogue and awareness raising forum on the importance of girl-child education and the role of the community to discourage early sex and teenage pregnancy.
Source: Daily Maverick
Are nearly two-thirds of South Africa's estimated 150,000 sex workers HIV-positive?
Source: EIN NEWS
As a medical student in 2007, Jennifer A. Downs, M.D. thought she wanted to become an infectious disease specialist, possibly in a U.S. inner city.