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Democratic Republic of Congo Gets Boost for HealthCare

NAIROBI, 31 March 2013 (IRIN) – The British government has announced a major new programme aimed at providing essential healthcare to six million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The five-year, US$270.7 million project will focus on rebuilding health facilities, training health workers, and supplying drugs and equipment.

Civil war has destroyed much of the country’s health infrastructure, as well as the road networks and vital services such as electricity, meaning patients often have to travel long distances to health centres that may not be equipped to handle their complications.

IRIN has put together a list of five health issues in DRC that require urgent attention:

Maternal and Child Health – DRC’s maternal mortality ratio is 670 deaths per 100,000 live births, with an estimated 19,000 maternal deaths annually. The country has a severe shortage of health workers – less than one health professional is available per 1,000 people.

With 170 out of every 1,000 children dying before they reach the age of five and 10 percent of infants underweight, DRC has one of the worst child health indicators in the world. It is one of five countries in the world in which about half of under-five deaths occur. Some of the biggest killers of children are diarrhoea, malaria, malnutrition and pneumonia.

Sexual violence – Several studies report high levels of sexual violence perpetrated against women, children and men in DRC, both by armed groups and within the home; one study, conducted in the North and South Kivu and Ituri in 2010, found that 40 percent of women and 24 percent of men had experienced sexual violence. Continue reading “Democratic Republic of Congo Gets Boost for HealthCare”

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Any tingling sensation in legs while pregnant? It may come back, sorry

Restless Legs in Pregnancy Likely to Recur, Researchers Say
Among those who developed syndrome, many had later occurrences, study found

Women who experience restless legs syndrome (RLS) during pregnancy are at increased risk for having it again during future pregnancies or developing a chronic form of the condition later in life, researchers have found.

RLS causes unpleasant sensations in the legs. Symptoms are generally worse at night and tend to progress with age. Movement generally relieves symptoms.

Italian researchers recruited 74 women who had RLS during pregnancy and 133 who did not. Six-and-a-half years later, the women were interviewed about RLS symptoms, additional pregnancies, occurrences of other diseases and medication use.

Of the women who had RLS during pregnancy, 18 (24 percent) also had the disorder at the end of the study, compared to 10 (8 percent) of the women who did not have RLS during pregnancy, the investigators found.

About 60 percent of the women who had RLS during a first pregnancy had the disorder again in a future pregnancy, compared to 3 percent of the women who did not have RLS during a first pregnancy, according to the report published in the Dec. 7 issue of the journal Neurology.

"This is the first long-term study to look at a possible connection between restless legs syndrome in pregnancy and repeat occurrences in later years or future pregnancies," study author Dr. Mauro Manconi, of Vita-Salute University in Milan, said in an American Academy of Neurology news release.

"Most of the time, when a woman experiences RLS in pregnancy, it disappears after the baby is born. However, our results show that having the condition during pregnancy is a significant risk factor for a future chronic form or the short-term form in other pregnancies down the road," Manconi added.

 

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President Mugabe Ignores Pregnant Women and Spend 300,000 on a Reality Show

A woman experiencing pain moments after delivering her baby, Picture by Patrick Farrell

A United Nation multimedia radio reported on Tuesday October 25 that in Zimbabwe eight mothers die giving birth every day. Already infant mortality statistic is worrisome in the African country.

With the medical advances we have at this time in human history, this should not be acceptable.

After many years of reckless domestic and economic policies under Pres. Robert Mugabe, the heath care system of Zimbabwe is almost the worst that comes to mind. It is not difficult to understand why maternal death is that high in Zimbabwe.  The economic situation almost excludes the likelihood of expecting mothers attending the hospital or clinic because they cannot afford to pay for the bills. Pregnant mothers in Zimbabwe go through their pregnancy term without any check ups. Last year, the Mugabe regime actually authorized hospitals and clinics to charge patients in foreign currency.

In some communities in Zimbabwe, it is luckiest of pregnant women who are able to obtain the services of community midwives. Even though some of the midwives are able to handle most common situations, they do not have the experience to handle the most challenging pregnancy complications, such as bacterial infection, gestational hypertension, pre-eclampsia, obstetrical hemorrhage, and ectopic pregnancy. These require gynecologist and obstetricians.

The average Zimbabwean earns $1.50. It is therefore not unexpected that most of them depend on community midwives and are not able to see gynecologist. Approximately 100 children die daily in Zimbabwe daily due to easily preventable diseases.

Zimbabwe is among the top 6 countries in the world with the worse record on maternal mortality. In spite of this, President Mugabe doesn’t even pretend to have a clue or care. A few days ago, the president and the First Shopper spent $300,000 on a date with the loser of the reality show Big Brother Show. Consider this in the light of the standard of living in Zimbabwe and it may even appear pornographic.

The average Zimbabweans could live on this for 200,000 days! Even in the US with the highest cost of health care, the average cost to deliver at the hospital with a normal vaginal birth is about $15,000. This means the amount the president’s family spent with the Big Brother loser could handle 20 hospital births.

Maternal mortality and infant mortality is a big burden on African countries. The chance of a woman dying from complication of pregnancy or delivery is 1 in 15! in Africa; in North America it is 1 in 3750.

This is a fight that can be won, but it requires strong political will with multidisciplinary programs focusing on prevention and early management of complications. The figures are not good and so are those for malaria, but when was either of these a key manifesto in any election across the continent?

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