Cheap, widely available drug could stop thousands of mothers bleeding to death

The Guardian ------ A cheap and widely available drug could save the lives of thousands of women who die in childbirth from excessive bleeding, one of the main killers of women worldwide. The drug, tranexamic acid, is available over the counter in the UK to women suffering from heavy periods. In Japan and the far east, it is used as a skin whitener. But now a very large study of 20,000 women in 21 countries has shown it can stop a third of cases of bleeding to death after giving birth. Haemorrhage after childbirth kills 100,000 women a year, mostly in low and middle-income countries. “It is not only the women dying – it is the impact on the child that has to grow up without a mother, children who might already be in the family and the husband,” said associate professor Haleema Shakur from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine who led the trial. To learn more click on the picture below to read the article.