UE targets better health services for sub-Saharan Africa
The Seventh Framework Programme has funded a project that aims to reinforce equity and effectiveness of sanitary services in sub-Saharan Africa. Problems related to reproductive health have a special incidence in teenagers.
People living in sub-Saharan Africa continue to feel the pressure of increasing poverty and morbidity (incidence of specific diseases). Teenagers in particular are at risk of reproductive health problems, and now a new EU-funded project is set to address this problem by investigating the effectiveness of existing programmes and identifying the structural drivers that restrict access to adolescent reproductive health (ARH) services in Niger and Tanzania.
The INTHEC ('Health, education and community integration: evidence based strategies to increase equity, integration and effectiveness of reproductive health services for poor communities in sub-Saharan Africa') project has received EUR 2.75 million in funding under the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).
The project, launched in March 2010 and scheduled to end in February 2014, will be instrumental in addressing the cultural barriers that currently limit access to or curb the effectiveness of ARH services found in the partner countries today.
Led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) in the UK, the INTHEC consortium comprises experts from the fields of reproductive health research and interventional implementation, as well as leaders in governance and policymaking in Belgium, Niger and Tanzania.
The INTHEC partners will develop and assess interventions for use in communities, schools and workshops. They will, for example, forge stronger ties between the communities and health units, and work to make local ARH services more effective.
When teens give birth to babies, the health risks for both mother and child increase. Myriad problems could arise including toxaemia, anaemia, malnutrition and vesico- or recto-vaginal fistula (an abnormal connection or passageway between two epithelium-lined organs or vessels that normally do not connect).
Research has also shown that sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) also have a vital impact on young women, as they are more easily infected than their older peers. These women are more frequently asymptomatic. Failure to correctly diagnose the problem can trigger more serious and long-term complications for these patients.