Day two (6/8) of the Women Deliver conference had a clear focus on technology to improve the health of women and children around the globe. Take a look at two examples of technologies discussed at the conference yesterday–one high tech and one very low tech.
Microbicide Vaginal Rings
“The nonprofit International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM) today announced the initiation of the first trial among women in Africa testing a vaginal ring containing an antiretroviral drug (ARV) that could one day be used to prevent HIV transmission during sex. The clinical trial, known as IPM 015, tests the safety and acceptability of an innovative approach that adapts a successful technology from the reproductive health field to give women around the world a tool to protect themselves from HIV infection…”
Read the full press release here.
Clean Delivery Kits
Clean Birth Kits–Potential to Deliver?, a publication supported by Save the Children/Saving Newborn Lives, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Immpact (University of Aberdeen), and the Maternal Health Task Force at EngenderHealth, was released at a session at Women Deliver yesterday. The session was chaired by Claudia Morrissey of Save the Children; moderated by Richard Horton, Editor of the Lancet; and presenters included Wendy Graham of University of Aberdeen, and Haris Ahmed of PAIMAN. The goal of the session was to summarise the evidence base for clean delivery kits, discuss practical implementation experiences from the field, and to have a lively debate on the “risks” associated with promoting birth kits. The report will be available online soon. (Check back on the MHTF Blog.)
Click here to read a post by Dr. Ann Blanc, Director of the Maternal Health Task Force, on a recent workshop leading up to the publication of Clean Birth Kits–Potential to Deliver?
For highlights from day one of the conference, click here.