Project Report
| Jun 10, 2008
Reaching pregnant women with misoprostol
By Amy Grossman | Communications Manager
In Tanzania there is near universal attendance for at least one antenatal care visit (96%), yet the majority of births still take place at home. Antenatal care visits may prove to be a key contact point to reach vulnerable women with safe birthing messages and misoprostol for prevention. With partners at the local Ifakara Research and Development Center, VSHD has designed and is funding a critical project to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of distribution of misoprostol tablets directly to women at antenatal care visits for the prevention of PPH. This innovative model is expected to reach a large number of women with the life-saving tablets. The results of this study will generate evidenced-based recommendations to inform policy decisions on community access to the tablets and scale-up efforts in Tanzania and beyond.
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Oct 26, 2007
Positive evaluation of misoprostol use at the community level
By Amy Grossman | Communications Manager
![Tanzanian research team evaluating misoprostol use]()
Tanzanian research team evaluating misoprostol use
This past summer we completed an evaluation of the long-term use of misoprostol for treatment of PPH at the community-level. Overall, misoprostol acceptance is very high among women surveyed in both intervention villages (where misoprostol has been in use by TBAs) and control villages where TBAs do not have misoprostol to control the life-threatening bleeding that can occur after delivery. More than four out of five women surveyed, reported they would recommend misoprostol to a friend or take it again if they experienced PPH.
In the villages where researchers visited, the overwhelming response was, "Bring more! Bring more tablets!"
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Oct 26, 2007
Tanzania registers life-saving drug for postpartum hemorrhage
By Amy Grossman | Communications Manager
The Tanzanian Food and Drug Authority officially announced September 27, 2007 it has approved the registration of misoprostol for controlling postpartum hemorrhage (PPH), the life-threatening bleeding after childbirth attributed to the loss of approximately 5,250 mother's lives annually in Tanzania.
For over a year and a half, our non-profit organization Venture Strategies for Health and Development, working in collaboration with UC Berkeley's School of Public Health, has helped Tanzania obtain regulatory approval of misoprostol for controlling postpartum hemorrhage, the top cause of maternal death worldwide. The Tanzanian's registration of misoprostol for PPH is only the second in Africa after Nigeria who, with VSHD assistance, obtained the world's first regulatory approval of misoprostol for PPH in January of 2006.
Plans for misoprostol's country-wide marketing and dissemination are in progress. Integral to that strategy will be reaching the rural, poor women who stand to benefit the most by the drug's availability. The Tanzanian Government’s announcement is a positive step toward enabling traditional birth attendants to continue to provide a safer birthing environment with misoprostol for the rural women they serve.
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