Sexual and Reproductive Health with Isaac Eranga

Posted on March 9, 2015 By Katie Millar, Technical Writer, MHTF At a standing room only event last week at The Forum at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health , global experts gathered to discuss the need for, barriers to, and the way forward for maternal and newborn integration. But what is integration and why is it so desperately needed? Every year approximately 300,000 women and 5.5 million newborns, including stillborns, die needlessly. The causes of these deaths are often similar since the mother and her newborn are inextricably linked both socially and biologically. For the panel, Putting Mothers and Babies First: Benefits Across a Lifetime , Ana Langer , Director of the Maternal Health Task Force; Joy Riggs-Perla , Director of Saving Newborn Lives at Save the Children; Alicia Yamin , Policy Director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights and Kirsten Gagnaire , Executive Director of the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action

January 22nd, 2015 By: Tewodros Melesse;  Originally posted by  Huffington Post The snow-capped mountains of the Swiss skiing resort of Davos seem a million miles away from the small wooden shack in a slum in Pampanga, Philippines that Marites Garcia calls home. Every day she sees her eight children and two grandchildren go without food. It breaks her heart but there's little she can do. She doesn't have an education or a job and neither does her husband. "It was an accident to have so many children. I didn't plan it. Two children would have been enough," Marites said. Marites is one of 225 million women who would like to use contraception but can't get hold of it. In the past Marites' story may have seemed of little consequence to the high powered business leaders who get together for their annual summit in exclusive Davos. But now they are beginning to realize how much Marites

March 8, 2013 | By Health Editor By Amy Norton HealthDay Reporter FRIDAY, March 8 (HealthDay News) — Women who use petroleum jelly vaginally may put themselves at risk of a common infection called bacterial vaginosis, a small study suggests. Prior studies have linked douching to ill effects, including bacterial vaginosis, and an increased risk of sexually transmitted diseases and pelvic inflammatory disease. But little research has been conducted on the possible effects of other products some women use vaginally, said Joelle Brown, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who led the new study. She and her colleagues found that of 141 Los Angeles women they studied, half said they’d used some type of over-the-counter product vaginally in the past month, including sexual lubricants, petroleum jelly and baby oil. Almost as many, 45 percent, reported douching. When the researchers tested the women for infections, they found tha

By Alan Mozes HealthDay Reporter THURSDAY, April 18 (HealthDay News) — In the five years since launching a nationwide human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination program among girls between the ages of 12 and 26, Australia has seen a huge drop in the number of cases of genital warts, new research reveals. Among Australian girls in the targeted age range for vaccination, the country saw genital wart cases plummet by 59 percent within just the first two years of the program’s launch in 2007. By aggressively vaccinating girls against HPV (which is responsible for 90 percent of genital wart diagnoses), Australia appears to have offered considerable protection not just to its female population but also its men as well. How? Researchers point to a phenomenon known as “herd immunity,” whereby the immunity acquired by a certain segment of the population — in this case, women — ends up protecting an unvaccinated segment of the population (men). In the same timeframe Austr

March 10th, 2015 By: Ann M. Starrs, Guttmacher Institute; Originally posted on Thomson Reuters Foundation Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Let the 21st century be the century of women,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has famously said. “The empowerment and rights of girls and women must be at the heart of everything we do.” “Make it happen,” one can easily imagine women from around the world saying to UN member states in response. Fittingly, “Make It Happen” is a motto for this year’s International Women’s Day. But we’re not there yet. In September 2015, UN delegates will come together in New York to decide on the Sustainable Development Goals, which will drive the global agenda on social, economic and environmental development for the next 15 years. Work thus far has resulted in 17 draft goals and 169 specific targets. While none of th

March 10th, 2015 “You have not been randomly selected,” the Danish Minister of Trade and Development, Mogens Jensen told the high-level participants last week at the first meeting of the newly established Danish Women Deliver Committee. “You are here because you represent an institution or organization, which I see contributing to involving the Danes, and the world, in the most important issue of our time - the struggle for women's and girls' health and rights.” Around the lunch table in the Foreign Ministry’s old warehouse sat 15 of the 20 committee members - key influencers representing cultural associations, trade unions, the media, the private sector, and organizations active in development cooperation and political life. HRH Crown Princess Mary, who will be the patron of the Women Deliver conference, was also there as she will be following the work of the Committee. The meeting was an opportunity for K

Africa is long known for high rates of hunger, undernutrition and infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS but a disturbing new threat of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) associated with overweight, obesity and diet-related NCDs is emerging in many countries. The rapid unplanned urbanization of countries in the African Region has resulted in increasing consumption of free sugars, sugar-sweetened drinks and processed foodstuffs. To help improve dietary choices and counter the rapid upsurge of NCDs, WHO released updated recommendations for adults and children to reduce the intake of free sugars throughout the life course.  WHO further recommends that in both adults and children, the intake of free sugars be reduced to less than 10% of total energy intake and a further reduction to below 5% of total energy intake would provide additional health benefits. “After years of research and over 9000 studies, the dangers of high levels of sugars consumption are finally starting to be

By Eranga Isaac Family planning allows individuals and couples to anticipate and attain their desired number of children and the spacing and timing of their births. It is achieved through use of contraceptive methods and the treatment of involuntary infertility. A woman’s ability to space and limit her pregnancies has a direct impact on her health and well-being as well as on the outcome of each pregnancy. Every day, 1,600 women and more than 10,000 newborns die from preventable complications during pregnancy and childbirth. Almost 99% of these maternal and 90% of neonatal deaths occur in the developing countries. As the first pillar of safe motherhood and essential component of primary health care, family planning plays a major role in reducing maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality. Family planning enhances efforts to improve family health. However, traditional beliefs, religious barriers and lack of male involvement have weakened family planning interventio