WHO releases list of drugs — To save mothers and children

Saturday, March 6, 2011 (The Mirror Pg 34)

By Rebecca Kwei
Surveys conducted in 14 African countries show that children's medicines are available in only 35 to 50 per cent of public and private pharmacies and drug stores.
The availability of medicines in developing countries for maternal and child health is compromised by poor supply and distribution systems, insufficient health facilities and staff, low investment in health and the high cost of medicines.
Consequently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has compiled its first ever list of priority medicines that need to be available everywhere for maternal and child health.
The top 30 essential medicines which was launched at the 18th Expert Committee on the Selection and Use of Essential Medicines in Accra, was compiled by experts in maternal and child health and medicines who analysed the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines and the latest WHO treatment guidelines to establish which medicines would save the most lives.
A Clinical Pharmacologist at the WHO, Dr Suzanne Hill, at a press briefing, said more than eight million children under the age of five still died every year from causes such as pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria while an estimated 1,000 women died every day due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth.
"Almost all of these deaths occur in developing countries and the vast majority can be prevented when the right medicines are available in the right formulations and are prescribed and used correctly," she said.
According to the WHO, haemorrhage or severe bleeding was the leading cause of maternal death and it could kill a healthy woman within two hours of giving birth.
It said an injection of oxytocin, immediately after delivery, can stop bleeding and can make the difference between life and death.
Other medicines on the list for mothers are medicines to treat infection, high blood pressure and sexually transmitted infections and drugs to prevent preterm birth.
Additionally, the WHO estimates that pneumonia kills an estimated 1.6 million children under the age of five years, yet research has shown that treatment with simple antibiotics could prevent as many as 600,000 deaths.
It said improving access to Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) and zinc tablets would save many of the 1.3 million children who are dying annually from diarrhoea.
The organisation noted that medicines appropriate for children are often not available, partly because of lack of awareness that children need different medicines from adults.
As a result, health workers are forced to adapt medicines intended for adults. Tablets are crushed into imprecise portions and dissolved into unpalatable drinks that are difficult for children to swallow and are potentially ineffective, toxic or harmful.
The WHO, therefore, recommends that wherever possible, medicines for children should be provided in doses that are easy to measure and easy for children to take.
A newly developed artemisinin combination tablet for malaria is dissolved in liquid and is sweet tasting, making it easier for children to swallow and ensuring that they receive correct and effective doses.