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.
For more information on HIV/AIDS and Reproductive health, please visit the following websites:
Source: The Guardian Nigeria
JANUARY is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month. Cervical cancer epitomizes the cost-effectiveness of investing in preventive health care. Cervical cancer is the easiest of all cancers to prevent.
Source: The Namibian
A CHEQUERED picture is emerging as a baseline survey, ahead of a programme meant to strengthen the capacity of SADC national parliaments to respond to sexual reproductive health rights issues in parts of the region, nears completion.
Source: StarAfrica
The World Bank has approved $170.2 million for women and adolescent girls to expand their access to reproductive, child and maternal health services in five countries in Africa's Sahel region and the Economic Community of Western African States (ECOWAS).
Source: MSF
The MSF duty surgeon in Yambio received a distress call from the maternity ward on a rainy Friday afternoon.
Source: MSF
On the bright morning of 3 November 2014, Adem, a 29-year-old mother of three arrived at the Yambio State Hospital's maternity ward with advanced labour pains.
Source: Times LIVE
The rising demand for Aids drugs, increasing failure of the 2.7 million South Africans on ARVs to take them properly, new infections among young women and dwindling funding threaten the advancements made last year that have brought down the infection rate.
Source: EBONY.com
I've been a strident advocate for a woman's right to choose since I was a pre-teen, and it's still difficult for me to say those words. So many assumptions about my life can be made on the basis of that admission, and the shame is real.
Source: Reuters
Medical charity Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) has opened the first care center in the current Ebola epidemic for pregnant women, whose survival rate from the virus is virtually zero, the charity said on Saturday.
Source: Maternal Health Task Force
Our paper—When Women Deliver with No One Present in Nigeria: Who, what, where and so what, published in the MHTF-PLOS Year Two collection—revealed that over one in five births in Nigeria was delivered with no one present (NOP) and 94% of those deliveries occurred in northern Nigeria.
Source: Spy Ghana
Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) has announced research findings that will prevent maternal death in Uganda and other developing countries.
Source: The Huffington Post
Ebola continues to spread. The fight against this pandemic in West Africa appears to have mixed results.