Since my last blog post, I wrapped up my UNICEF India research paper (which, excitingly enough for my exhausted team and I - recently got published!), consulted on a few global health projects, packed up my things, said a bittersweet goodbye to NYC, moved to warm and sunny Los Angeles, and started a new job. I'm back on the West Coast to start a new chapter in my life and revive my wanderlust.
I've been very blessed to have received the opportunity to continue chasing my dream - establishing a career in global health and making a difference in the lives of others. I'm carving out a niche now, focusing on the provision of access to medicines for maternal health with my new non-profit organization. It's innovative and exciting work, and it's put me on the road again to help launch an access to medicines / availability program.
In the global health field, you can create access to medicines in several ways - mainly though through policy change and drug registration. Creating access is like telling someone that they can have something, like they are legally allowed to drive. However, this has to be paired with availability, which means that something, like a car, is reasonably within reach. It's available (and ideally, affordable). With both access and availability, an individual can then drive themselves from one place to another - in global health terms, they are empowered to attain better health standards. Of course a person has to receive the proper education in order to know how to drive; this is addressed in global health through proper [medical] training and education campaigns.
Approximately 529,000 women - that's about 1 every minute - die from complications of pregnancy globally every year. Postpartum hemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal mortality, responsible for approximately a quarter of these deaths - the portion even higher in sub-Saharan Africa.
In the US, we don't normally hear about PPH because the drug used to prevent it (oxytocin), is already part of the standard of care in health facilities for laboring mothers. In many developing countries, PPH occurs for many reasons - including the inability of rural women to reach health facilities for labor and delivery, and the challenges of providing oxytocin. Oxytocin is the WHO recommendation for care as a first line treatment, but it is a temperature sensitive injection (it requires consistent refrigeration). It can be unstable and ineffective in countries where there are intermittent power outages, long transport times to rural facilities, and facilities without any electricity at all, like in Tanzania. It has also been subject to stockouts - where it is simply unavailable at facilities.
So misoprostol - a heat-stable, low-cost pill, which has a comparably effective rate as oxytocin, can be a powerful solution for the prevention and treatment of PPH. This can be more easily transported to both urban and rural health facilities.
In 2007, Tanzania created access to misoprostol. It was registered in the country, but since then, the availability of the drug has not been formally researched or documented. Tanzania's pharmaceutical system has endured a myriad of challenges and changes over the past several years, and an efficient and effective supply chain system has yet to be established. This makes availability quite a challenge, but not one that can't be surmounted to save the lives of mothers.
On the road this time, my global health journey will take me through the Tanzanian system to help assess availability and comb out the challenges to safe motherhood. It'll be an interesting and exciting experience, which I hope will be complemented with some great stories and findings. Stay tuned...
A glimpse of Tanzania thus far:
I've been very blessed to have received the opportunity to continue chasing my dream - establishing a career in global health and making a difference in the lives of others. I'm carving out a niche now, focusing on the provision of access to medicines for maternal health with my new non-profit organization. It's innovative and exciting work, and it's put me on the road again to help launch an access to medicines / availability program.
In the global health field, you can create access to medicines in several ways - mainly though through policy change and drug registration. Creating access is like telling someone that they can have something, like they are legally allowed to drive. However, this has to be paired with availability, which means that something, like a car, is reasonably within reach. It's available (and ideally, affordable). With both access and availability, an individual can then drive themselves from one place to another - in global health terms, they are empowered to attain better health standards. Of course a person has to receive the proper education in order to know how to drive; this is addressed in global health through proper [medical] training and education campaigns.
Approximately 529,000 women - that's about 1 every minute - die from complications of pregnancy globally every year. Postpartum hemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal mortality, responsible for approximately a quarter of these deaths - the portion even higher in sub-Saharan Africa.
In the US, we don't normally hear about PPH because the drug used to prevent it (oxytocin), is already part of the standard of care in health facilities for laboring mothers. In many developing countries, PPH occurs for many reasons - including the inability of rural women to reach health facilities for labor and delivery, and the challenges of providing oxytocin. Oxytocin is the WHO recommendation for care as a first line treatment, but it is a temperature sensitive injection (it requires consistent refrigeration). It can be unstable and ineffective in countries where there are intermittent power outages, long transport times to rural facilities, and facilities without any electricity at all, like in Tanzania. It has also been subject to stockouts - where it is simply unavailable at facilities.
So misoprostol - a heat-stable, low-cost pill, which has a comparably effective rate as oxytocin, can be a powerful solution for the prevention and treatment of PPH. This can be more easily transported to both urban and rural health facilities.
In 2007, Tanzania created access to misoprostol. It was registered in the country, but since then, the availability of the drug has not been formally researched or documented. Tanzania's pharmaceutical system has endured a myriad of challenges and changes over the past several years, and an efficient and effective supply chain system has yet to be established. This makes availability quite a challenge, but not one that can't be surmounted to save the lives of mothers.
On the road this time, my global health journey will take me through the Tanzanian system to help assess availability and comb out the challenges to safe motherhood. It'll be an interesting and exciting experience, which I hope will be complemented with some great stories and findings. Stay tuned...
A glimpse of Tanzania thus far:
