This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
Cheap medicine found to prevent child birth deaths
Research published in the Lancet has highlighted a cost-effective drug which has been shown to stop women bleeding to death during childbirth.
The news comes as every year, 100,000 women around the world die from massive bleeding, or postpartum haemorrhage, in the moments after giving birth. The study suggested that ‘tranexamic acid’ could cut this kind of mortality by a third.
The complication is the biggest cause of death during pregnancy and early motherhood.
Tranexamic act works by preventing blood clots breaking down to make it easier for the body to stem bleeding. It is currently used for the treatment of heavy periods.
A study was coordinated by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in a collaboration of 193 hospitals mostly in Africa and Asia. It found tranexamic acid cut deaths by a fifth overall and by 31 per cent in those given the drug within three hours of birth.
In an interview with the BBC, Prof Ian Roberts, one of the researchers said: "We've got an important result.
"We found an inexpensive drug, given in a single shot, that reduces the risk of bleeding to death, and it should play a role in reducing maternal mortality around the world."
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