INDIAN STUDY REVEALS NEW TREATMENT FOR POSTPARTUM HEMORRHAGE

The drug misoprostol provides a safe, convenient and inexpensive means to prevent postpartum hemorrhage, a major killer of women in developing countries, according to a study conducted by the U.S. NIH and the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College with women in rural India.

Postpartum hemorrhage is excessive bleeding after giving birth. The study, which was published in the Lancet, was funded by the Global Network for Women's and Children's Health Research, a public-private partnership between NIH's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In developed countries, where the majority of births occur in hospitals and emergency care is available, deaths from postpartum hemorrhage are rare. However, the study authors noted that in rural India, 50 percent of births occur at home or in facilities without a physician in attendance. The estimated maternal death rate in that country is 407 women for every 100,000 births. The study authors also cited estimates that, worldwide, about 500,000 maternal deaths occur during childbirth each year, with postpartum hemorrhage accounting for about 30 percent of those deaths.

Oxytocin is the standard drug used to prevent postpartum hemorrhage in developed countries, according to the authors. But the drug needs to be kept cold, and must be given by trained medical personnel. Misoprostol, on the other hand, does not require refrigeration, and the oral tablets cost as little as $0.14 each.