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: IPS
Uganda has gotten plenty of kudos and some criticism over its roll out of the new antiretroviral therapy for pregnant women and their babies, known as Option B +.
Source: The Herald
A woman has caused a stir in the Temaruru area in Rusape after she set up an "abortion clinic" at her homestead which has resulted in the death of one of her clients and a still birth by another.
Source: The Star
A 17-year-old girl died on Monday after trying to abort a pregnancy. The girl, a form two student at Lwala Mixed Secondary School, died while being treated at Migori Level Four Hospital.
Source: Trust
Uganda has one of the world's highest unmet needs for contraception, leading almost 300,000 women to seek backstreet abortions each year - with many dying as a result, the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) said in a new report released on Wednesday.
Source: New Era
About five hundred people are expected to stage a protest march today starting in Katutura to the Windhoek Central Hospital where they will hand over a petition demanding that the government set aside plans to appeal a High Court decision last year in which the court ruled that three women were sterilised without consent and were therefore coerced.
Source: The Star
WOMEN and youths are the most affected by HIV-Aids in Mombasa county, the National Aids Control Council has said. The two groups contribute to three quarters of prevalence in the county, which has an estimated 58,100 residents living with HIV, according to a report by the National HIV and Estimates, Nascop/NACC 2012.
Source: The Star
In yesterday's Star, we published an interview with Melinda Gates, the co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, about her family planning projects in Kenya. Today, read about how previously unreached women in the slums are embracing modern family planning methods.
Source: The Star
When Faith Akoth discovered she was pregnant, she was overjoyed. This was her first pregnancy and she could not wait to be a new mother.
Source: Government of Ethiopia
First Lady Roman Tesfaye stressed that the empowerment of women is decisive to advance family planning services. Speaking at the 3rd International Family Planning Conference, she also noted that family planning is the prime option to improve the living conditions of women and children and realize health-related Millennium Development Goals.
Source: Malawi News Agency (Lilongwe)
Lilongwe — The Director for Department of Human Immune Virus (HIV) in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Frank Chimbwandira said HIV positive mothers could exclusively breastfed their children up to two years.
Source: Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)
As Tanzania joins the rest of the international community to mark World Prematurity Day today, an estimated 210,000 babies in the country are born too soon each year.