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Home » Press Center » VSI Newsroom » VSI launches PAC program in Mozambique
July 29, 2010

VSI and partners launch misoprostol for postabortion care program in Mozambique

(MACIA, MOZAMBIQUE) - On June 22, 2010 in the Macia district of Mozambique, VSI, the Bixby Center for Population, Health and Sustainability at the University of California, Berkeley, the Associação Moçambicana de Obstetrícia e Ginecologia (AMOG), and PSI commenced trainings of elementary midwives, maternal and child health nurses, medical assistants, surgical technicians, and doctors on the use of misoprostol for treatment of incomplete abortion and miscarriage as well as provision of postabortion counseling and family planning to prevent future unwanted pregnancy.  

To meet the needs of women in Mozambique, where it is estimated that over 15% of maternal deaths are due to complications of abortion, this collaborative project includes all of the public health facilities and providers of postabortion care (PAC) services in Macia and Monapo districts, two districts with particularly high rates of incomplete abortion.

With the introduction of this internationally endorsed medication-based service, this project expands access to life-saving care for complications of abortion, especially for women served by providers without capacity or equipment to provide PAC using surgical methods, including elementary midwives at rural health posts.  The introduction of misoprostol into the public sector will also help to meet the demand for safe treatment, and will give providers and women themselves another effective option to existing surgical treatments.

To date, in two trainings across the two project districts, 39 providers have been trained by VSI Country Coordinator for Mozambique, Dr. Cassimo Bique, and Dr. Momade Ustá on the components of PAC, including the use of misoprostol, counseling, the provision of family planning methods, and the project protocol.  Health care providers participating in the training were eager to apply their new knowledge of misoprostol, and interested to know how best to serve women with effective postabortion family planning methods.  The partners will monitor the program and use the data collected to inform country-specific policy recommendations on the role of misoprostol in PAC services, a strategy that the Ministry of Health has viewed with enthusiasm.

VSI’s work in Mozambique builds on efforts underway to create access to misoprostol for prevention of postpartum hemorrhage, the life-threatening bleeding after childbirth that contributes disproportionately to maternal deaths in rural parts of the country.  VSI, the Bixby Center and AMOG are currently implementing a program piloting community-level distribution of misoprostol through antenatal care visits and traditional birth attendants in three districts.

The Pharmaceutical Department of the Ministry of Health of Mozambique approved the registration of misoprostol for all obstetric indications in 2009, with technical assistance from VSI.

To learn more about VSI's program in Mozambique, click here.