Top 30 medicines to save mothers and children

21 March 2011 - WHO's first ever list of priority medicines for maternal and child health recommends to countries which medicines are most important for saving lives.

Access to appropriate medicines is vital to achieving global health goals¹. More than eight million children under the age of five still die every year from causes such as pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria. An estimated 1 000 women die 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.

Compiling the list

The top 30 priority list was compiled by experts in maternal and child health and medicines who analysed the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines² and the latest WHO treatment guidelines to establish which medicines would save the most lives.

Haemorrhage, or severe bleeding, is the leading cause of maternal death. It can kill a healthy woman within two hours of giving birth. An injection of oxytocin immediately after delivery can stop the bleeding and can make the difference between life and death.

Other medicines on the list for mothers include medicines to treat infection, high blood pressure and sexually transmitted infections as well as drugs to prevent preterm birth.

Every year, pneumonia kills an estimated 1.6 million children under the age of five years, yet research has shown that treatment with simple antibiotics could avert as many as 600 000 deaths.

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.

Appropriate doses of the right combinations of antimalarials and antiretrovirals are critical to reducing child deaths and suffering from malaria and AIDS-related illness. read more >>

Source: http://www.who.int