How local drug manufacturing reduces maternal deaths

Many women in developing countries, including Nigeria, have lost their lives due to excessive bleeding after birth. Women bleed after birth but it becomes a problem when it continues to increase instead of decreasing. Some traditional birth attendants and health workers sometimes look helplessly as the women bleed to death after delivery. Postpartum haemorrhage (also […]

Many women in developing countries, including Nigeria, have lost their lives due to excessive bleeding after birth.

Women bleed after birth but it becomes a problem when it continues to increase instead of decreasing.

Some traditional birth attendants and health workers sometimes look helplessly as the women bleed to death after delivery.

Postpartum haemorrhage (also called PPH) is when a woman has heavy bleeding after giving birth. It is a serious but rare condition.

It usually happens within one day of giving birth, but it can happen up to 12 weeks after having a baby.

About 1 to 5 in 100 women who have a baby (1 to 5 per cent) have PPH.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), “Every year, about 14 million women around the world suffer from PPH. The risk of maternal mortality from haemorrhage is one in 1,000 deliveries in developing countries (100 per 100,000 live births). However, recent studies have shown an increase in the incidence of PPH in developed countries as well.”

Any woman could experience PPH but some of those who are most affected are women who have had many previous births, prolonged labour, multiple-birth delivery, infection, high blood pressure and many other risk factors.

There are drugs to manage the blood when it becomes excessive but it is sometimes unavailable due to some factors including long clearing process at the ports, among other factors.

Recently, a drug to solve the problem is being manufactured in Nigeria. During a visit recently to a 60 hectares manufacturing site procured by Emzor pharmaceutical industry along the Sagamu Benin expressway, the drug for stopping the excessive bleeding was being produced along with 200 other varieties of drugs and consumables.

Describing the rationale behind the production of the drug which has misoprostol as an active ingredient, Mrs Uzoma Ezeoke, the Executive Director of Emzor said when children are being born, it puts a lot of strain in the uterine area of the mother and it sometimes leads to massive bleeding.

She said, “This drug is inserted vaginally and it immediately absorbs right where it is needed to stop that bleeding. When that’s done, PPH, the leading cause of death for a mother after birth will be reduced. It is hugely impactful and it is a life-saving tablet.

“There are some non-governmental organisations focused on maternal health, sometimes they have supply gaps. The drugs for saving maternal lives are sometimes stuck in a container at the ports due to the congestion at the ports. They sometimes wait up to a month before clearing the container. It is easier to store raw materials than very bulky finished goods.”

Stating the importance of a locally produced tablet for managing excessive bleeding after birth, Ezeoke said the rural areas where hospitals are far away would benefit more from having the tablet as hospitals are usually far from them.

“Whenever there is a complication after birth, it is easier for the midwife caring for the woman to insert it into the woman to save her life. However, it requires a highly skilled medical professional and it has helped reduce maternal mortality considerably,” she said.

In a recent tour of Emzor facility in Ogun State, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Alhaji Abdullahi Mashi, assured that the federal government would ensure local pharmaceutical manufacturing companies are supported to increase production.