Posts Tagged ‘The Lancet’
Tuesday, September 20th, 2011 by Christopher Lindahl
With maternal mortality estimates published last year by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and the United Nations, and the recent neonatal mortality estimates, it became relatively clear that most countries would not meet the ambitions set in Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5. A new report from IHME, published in The Lancet, confirms that few countries are on track:
An estimated 31 developing countries will achieve Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4, which calls for a two-thirds reduction in the child mortality rate between 1990 and 2015, and 13 developing countries will achieve MDG 5, which calls for a three-fourths reduction in the maternal mortality ratio over the same period. Of those countries, nine will achieve both goals: China, Egypt, Iran, Libya, Maldives, Mongolia, Peru, Syria, and Tunisia.
Although many countries will not meet the lofty goals set in 2000, progress has been made in many countries, especially recently, that should allow us to still be optimistic about maternal and child health.
The report continues:
In 125 countries, maternal mortality has declined faster since 2000, the year that countries signed the Millennium Declaration, promising to make improvements in child and maternal health, and the progress has been particularly strong in the past five years. Over the same period, in 106 countries, child mortality rates have declined faster between 2000 and 2011 than in the previous decade.
Tags: estimates, IHME, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, maternal mortality, maternal mortality estimates, MDG 4, MDG 5, Millennium Development Goals, neonatal mortality, The Lancet
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Thursday, April 28th, 2011 by Christopher Lindahl
Earlier this month, The Lancet published a series on stillbirths to shed light on a health issue that is often ignored. Many of the causes of stillbirth also can lead to poor maternal outcomes, and many of the solutions and interventions to address stillbirth and maternal health are the same. Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet discusses the Stillbirth Series below:
Tags: maternal health, stillbirth, The Lancet
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Friday, April 15th, 2011 by Christopher Lindahl
Earlier this week, The Lancet published a series of articles on stillbirth. The series is generating a lot of press and reactions from the global health community. Below are a selection of reactions and comments on the series. If you see other interesting responses, leave them in the comments.
Tags: intrapartum stillbirth, stillbirth, The Lancet
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Thursday, April 14th, 2011 by Christopher Lindahl
The Lancet launched a new series yesterday focusing on stillbirths, holding events in London, New York, Hobart (Australia), Geneva, New Delhi, Florence, and Cape Town. We attended the event yesterday at UNICEF which featured:
- Maja Zecevik (Editor, The Lancet North America)
- Dr Lale Say (Dept of Reproductive Health and Research, WHO)
- Tomasine Bogle (A parent who has experienced stillbirth)
- Dr Robert Goldenberg (NICHD / Drexel University)
- Purnima Mane (UNFPA)
Stillbirth is an issue that is largely in the shadows and not often discussed in public health or even between doctors and patients. According to The Lancet:
Around 2.6 million stillbirths (the death of a baby at 28 weeks’ gestation or more) occur each year. Although 98% of these deaths take place in low-income and middle-income countries, stillbirths also continue to affect wealthier nations, with around 1 in every 300 babies stillborn in high-income countries. The Series highlights the rates and causes of stillbirth globally, explores cost-effective interventions to prevent stillbirths (as well as maternal and neonatal deaths), and sets key actions to halve stillbirth rates by 2020. Also included are Comments from professional organisations and parent groups, the latter demonstrating the unique tragedy for families of the birth of a baby bearing no signs of life.
The Series features 6 papers, 2 research articles, a number of comments, videos and other multimedia. Given the wealth of resources available, it is worth the time of any person working in maternal and child health.
Sarah Boseley of the UK Guardian writes:
The Lancet series on stillbirths is a breakthrough in a field that has been hampered by wrong assumptions and prejudice and a lack of energy to tackle the issue. For the first time, these dead babies are being counted – in every sense. Joy Lawn from Save the Children in Cape Town, South Africa, and colleagues have made herculean efforts to estimate the numbers. They have collected information from over 1000 databases and concluded that there are at least 2.6 million stillbirths every year – 98% in the developing world but a troublingly large number in rich countries too. And there are things that can be done. The same interventions now being promoted to save the lives of women in childbirth and babies born alive – the subject of Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 – can help prevent babies dying in the final weeks of pregnancy and during birth.
Tags: intrapartum stillbirth, stillbirth, The Lancet
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Friday, September 24th, 2010 by Raji Mohanam
Written By: Maria M. Pawlowska, Cambridge Gates Scholar
Here’s an interesting, if somewhat depressing, factoid – a search on Google news for “delhi, maternal, conference” turns up 6 stories. Five of which have been published on reproductive health and feminist websites. An analogous search for “vienna, conference, aids” turns up 63 stories – that’s over 10 times as much! Now, this can mean two things – the world’s largest search engine is biased against news articles about maternal health or maternal health receives nowhere near the media coverage it deserves.
Global health is generally underreported, and one might argue wars and terrorism gain more press and television time than do preventable diseases–so sixty-three news pieces about a hugely important conference on AIDS is too few – but it’s still over 1000% more attention (measured in news articles in English-language media) than the recent conference in Dehli had.
My little “Googleing” exercise has obviously very little to do with proper research on societal awareness of major development and public health problems. I dare say, however, that it is telling and unfortunately symptomatic of the general attitude towards women’s issues in development in general, and women’s health in particular.
Although birth, as Melinda Gates rightly pointed out, is an event that should be celebrated (and I would add, the result of a women’s conscious decision every time), it is in fact in far too many places a life threatening ordeal. And even though it’s something that every single human being on the planet can associate with on some level – whether they’re somebody’s child or someone’s mother, maternal health still gets frighteningly little attention in main stream media. Feminist and reproductive rights organisations are doing a terrific job, but the readers of those outlets are a selected group who are usually aware of these issues anyway.
The medical community has really stepped up recently and taken on discussing maternal and child health in numerous articles. For example The Lancet has been publishing many papers on the topic. However, once again the readership of this, extremely prestigious journal, is nowhere near as broad as that of say the New York Times or the Economist.
It is vital that the general public is made aware of the hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths each year, which impact not only women and their families but also their whole communities. In some ways the tragedy of all these women dying in childbirth every year is compounded by the fact that we know how to help them. By doubling the current global investment into maternal health (which would still be less money than President Obama recently spent on bailing out the automobile industry) we could save at least 80% of these women and girls. All we need is more political action, more lobbying and more public awareness leading to tangible increases in funding. The current high rate of maternal mortality in developing countries is a shameful plague, which we can eradicate if we put a little more of our hearts, minds, and development money towards it.
Tags: AIDs, Cambridge Gates Scholar, childbirth, global health, Googling, HIV/AIDS, maternal health, maternal mortality, Melinda Gates, New Delhi, New York Times, Obama, reproductive rights, The Lancet, Vienna
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Thursday, June 24th, 2010 by KateMitch
A message from Family Care International:
Family Care International will be at the G8 and G20 Summits in Canada this week, and you can follow our live updates on Facebook and Twitter!
Amy Boldosser, a member of FCI’s global advocacy team, will be in Toronto from Thursday through Sunday, making FCI one of the few international health NGOs that will be on the scene for these historic meetings. FCI, along with our colleagues from the Global Health Council, will also be blogging the summits at the Blog 4 Global Health; Amy will be posting on RH Reality Check too.
Canada, the host country for both summits, has declared that maternal and child health will be a central focus of the G8 agenda. FCI and our advocacy partners from around the world are working to ensure that this is far more than a symbolic step — that the G8’s discussion leads to concrete financial commitments, and that governments are held accountable for delivering on these commitments and saving women’s and children’s lives.
- To lend your voice, sign the ONE Campaign’s petition asking that the G8 commit to training an additional 3.5 million healthcare workers by 2015.
Tags: advocacy, Amy Boldosser, Ann Starrs, Blog 4 Global Health, Call to Action for the G8, Canada, child health, Facebook, Family Care International, FCI, FCI's global advocacy team, G20, G8, G8 and G20 Summits, Global Health Council, international health, maternal and child health, maternal health, Momentum mandates and money: achieving health MDGs, newborn health, ONE Campaign, Partnership for Maternal Newborn and Child Health, RH Reality Check, The Lancet, Toronto, Twitter
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Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010 by KateMitch
The controversial research reporting unexpected gains in maternal health, published April 12 in the Lancet, has triggered rigorous debate about the measurement tools used to count maternal deaths globally and at a country level. The paper, Maternal mortality for 181 countries, 1980-2008: a systematic analysis of progress towards Millennium Development Goal 5, was written by Chris Murray and his team of researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Some global health leaders are celebrating the global progress toward MDG5 indicated by the research. Some are expressing cautious optimism. Others are challenging the paper’s methodology, asking whether it really signals big gains in the struggle against global maternal mortality or just flawed means of estimating how many women are dying.
On June 5th, the Lancet published a reply from Chris Murray in which he addresses some of the concerns voiced by his fellow global health researchers regarding the methodology of the study.
For more on this topic, take a look at a recent post, New Maternal Mortality Estimates Published in the Lancet: What’s the Buzz?, on our new MedScape Blog, GlobalMama.
Tags: analysis, Chris Murray, Christopher Murray, country level, criticism, estimation, Hogan, IHME, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Lancet, Margaret C Hogan, maternal death, maternal health, maternal mortality, MDG5, measurement, measurement tools, methodology, Millennium Development Goal 5, MMR estimates, new estimates, new MMR estimates, skepticism, The Lancet
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Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 by KateMitch
EarthSky: A Clear Voice for Science has posted two podcast interviews with Chris Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington—and principal author of the April 2010 study published in the Lancet that showed a decline in women dying in childbirth around the world.
The first podcast is 90 seconds and the second is 8 minutes.
Murray comments on his recent study and notes that, “The good news is that some countries have proven that we can make progress – countries like Egypt, or Bolivia, or China or even India.”
Click here to access the podcasts–and read the accompanying post by Hilary Andersen on EarthSky.
Tags: Bolivia, childbirth, China, Chris Murray, Christopher Murray, Earth Sky, Earth Sky: A Clear Voice for Science, Egypt, Hilary Andersen, India, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Lancet, maternal death, maternal health, maternal mortality, Podcast, The Lancet, University of Washington
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Friday, April 30th, 2010 by KateMitch
This guest blog post was written by the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases staff.
According to the new maternal mortality estimates recently published in the Lancet, 342,900 women die annually while pregnant or from childbirth. This is a dramatic improvement over numbers released in 1980, but is still unacceptably high and must be addressed. Because of the inextricable link between maternal health and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), reducing the number of women suffering from hookworm and schistosomiasis for instance, will also greatly improve global maternal health—and the woman’s overall health and well being.
According to a paper written by Dr. Peter Hotez, Distinguished Research Professor, Chair of his Department at George Washington University, and President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, titled “Empowering Women and Improving Female Reproductive Health through the Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases,” one of the greatest risks to a pregnancy is anemia, a decrease in red blood cells caused by a lack of iron. Anemia during pregnancy can result in low birth weight, infection, miscarriage, or the death of the mother. It is estimated that 20% of maternal deaths in Africa can be attributed to anemia. One of the major causes of anemia is hookworm, an intestinal worm which infects an estimated 576 million people worldwide. That includes 44 million pregnant women worldwide and up to one-third of the pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa. In one study in Nepal, hookworm was found responsible for 54% of anemia during pregnancy. By feeding on the blood of the host, the hookworm also robs the fetus of dearly needed iron and other nutrients. By treating this parasite, countless cases of maternal anemia could be avoided, leading to decreased maternal mortality and healthier children.
Another major cause of anemia is schistosomiasis, also known as bilharzia. This is a parasite, which infects over 207 million people worldwide, is endemic in the water supplies of impoverished areas, especially in Africa which, if untreated, can lead to cancer and organ failure. Schistosomiasis is especially dangerous because the eggs of the parasite can be deposited in the placenta, further complicating pregnancy.
The good news is that there are proven, cost-efficient, and effective solutions for these diseases. Hookworm can be treated with Albendazole, which also treats other intestinal worms, and schistosomiasis can be treated by a single dose of Praziquantel. Both of those drugs are donated by drug companies or made available for sale at discounted prices. The inclusion of these drugs in antenatal care packages has proven to be successful at avoiding anemia and saving lives. By treating NTDs, we can stop many cases of entirely preventable maternal deaths and treat some of the most destructive diseases facing humanity in one fell swoop.
Visit the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases website to learn more about their work–and take a look at their blog, End the Neglect.
Tags: Africa, Albendazole, anemia, anemia during pregnancy, antenatal care, bilharzia, cancer, child health, childbirth, Dr. Peter Hotez, drug companies, Empowering Women and Improving Female Reproductive Health through the Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases, End the Neglect, George Washington University, global maternal health, Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, hookworm, infection, intestinal worms, iron, Lancet, low birth weight, maternal anemia, maternal death, maternal health, miscarriage, neglected tropical diseases, Nepal, new estimates, new maternal mortality estimates, NTDs, nutrients, nutrition, organ failure, parasites, placenta, Praziquantel, pregnancy complications, pregnant, preventable maternal death, Sabin Vaccine Institute, schistosomiasis, sub-Saharan Africa, The Lancet, water supplies
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Achieving MDG 5: More Health Workers Needed to Find Solutions for Vulnerable Women
Tuesday, September 21st, 2010 by Raji MohanamThe MHTF is soliciting reactions from the maternal health community to the newly released UN MMR data. Our hope is that, together, these comments will serve as a springboard for discussion and provide momentum towards MDG5.
Written By: Maureen Corbett, Vice President of programs, IntraHealth International
Last week, the United Nations released the newest estimate of maternal mortality, which shows an important 34% decline in the last two decades. More than 220,000 fewer women died of pregnancy-related causes in 2008 when compared to 1990. These new estimates reinforce the good news reported earlier this year by The Lancet, further confirming that maternal death and disability are not intractable problems. Progress is possible. However, the new numbers also bring sharp focus to the global inequities, which for too many of the world’s girls and women mean they do not get the high-quality health care they need before, during, and after a pregnancy. This inequity is clear in the fact that the lifetime risk that a 15-year old young woman in sub-Saharan Africa will eventually die of a pregnancy-related cause (1 in 31) is more than 1000 times that of a young woman in some developed countries (1 in 4,300). These wide disparities between developing and developed regions are unacceptable. If we are serious about achieving Millennium Development Goal 5, a 75% drop in maternal mortality by 2015, we need to more than double our efforts in the next five years.
The UN press release accompanying the new report highlighted the four main causes of maternal death—postpartum hemorrhage, infections, hypertensive disorders, and unsafe abortion. Each is preventable, treatable, or both. We know the technical interventions that are needed, including modern contraception, safe abortion, antenatal care, skilled attendance for labor and delivery, and postpartum care. We also know that strong health systems are essential for improving availability, quality, and access to these services. And, essential to the health system is the health workforce. Without increased attention and innovation around solving the problem of the critical shortage of skilled health workers, continued progress in reducing maternal mortality and morbidity will not be possible. The UN report sends a clear message. Progress in reducing maternal mortality will only be achieved with increased national ownership, strong health systems, and a global commitment to recruiting, training, equipping, deploying and retaining, and supporting more motivated and productive health workers.
During a recent trip to India, I learned more about India’s ASHA (accredited social health activist) program. This innovative program recruits female health workers from the communities they serve, and trains them to educate community members and serve as a liaison between the community and the health system. The program offers these women incentives through a “pay for performance” system. Colleagues pointed out, however, that in some of the most marginalized and isolated communities in India there are no ASHA workers because in some villages there are no women who meet the basic selection criteria for being an ASHA, which includes basic literacy. Because of this, these already marginalized communities do not have community health workers to offer even the most basic health care. Continuing to make progress in these communities and the many others that are isolated or marginalized requires us to get creative about how to reach all women with the package of services they need. Doing this starts with a global commitment to value all women’s lives—only then will we be able to galvanize the resources necessary to prevent their deaths.
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Tags: ASHA, community health workers, health workers, IntraHealth International, Maureen Corbett, selection criteria, The Lancet, UN data, UN Press Release
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