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Home » Press Center » VSI Newsroom » Madagascar Launch
Jun 23, 2009

Madagascar launches its first misoprostol study to reduce maternal deaths from postpartum hemorrhage and incomplete abortion


On Friday, June 12, 2009, the Ministry of Health and Family Planning of Madagascar and Marie Stopes Madagascar (MSM), with technical and financial support from Venture Strategies Innovations (VSI), launched “Saving Malagasy Women’s Lives with Misoprostol.”  The pilot study introduces misoprostol, a low-cost, generic drug that has the potential to reduce maternal deaths by 27% in Madagascar.

The study is the first of its kind in Madagascar and will be underway for three months.  Nurse-midwives will administer misoprostol for the management of postpartum hemorrhage (PPH), or excessive bleeding after childbirth, and treatment of incomplete abortion in 31 primary health centers and six MSM centers across six regions of the island nation.

On the occasion of the launch, Dr. Jean Pierre Rakotovao, an advisor to the study, noted that making misoprostol available for the management of PPH and incomplete abortion can contribute to a significant reduction in the number of maternal deaths in Madagascar, ultimately helping the country towards achieving Millennium Development Goal 5—reducing its maternal mortality ratio of 469 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births by 75% by 2015.  

Dr. Rakotovao also encouraged the Ministry of Health to implement countrywide coverage of misoprostol for management of PPH and incomplete abortion as both contribute to maternal deaths.  He reported that Madagascar could see a reduction in maternal mortality of up to 27% if misoprostol is made available for prevention of PPH at the community level in addition to at health centers.

The collaborative misoprostol launch garnered much enthusiasm as well as media coverage in four of Madagascar’s prominent newspapers.  L’Express de Madagascar highlighted that Madagascar is in fact behind many countries that have already adopted this life-saving medicine to prevent death in women who deliver at home in rural areas.  In addition to its efforts in Madagascar, the nonprofit organization VSI is currently working to create access to misoprostol to prevent maternal deaths in 13 other countries in Africa and Asia.

L’Express also published an interview with Dr. Thierry Ramanantsoa of MSM, one of the study’s principal investigators.  Dr. Ramantsoa’s final remarks indicate a commitment to saving women’s lives with misoprostol wherever they may live:  “In short, we want to place this affordable and effective medicine within everyone’s reach.”

See article in L’Express de Madagascar
See article in Midi Madagasikara