Brazzaville, 3 March 2022 – Disruptions to important well being companies as a result of COVID-19 pandemic are being felt broadly. Because the world marks Worldwide Ladies’s Day, a brand new World Well being Group (WHO) evaluation finds that girls’s well being companies are removed from being totally restored, with 40% of African international locations reporting disruptions to sexual, reproductive, maternal, new child, youngster and adolescent well being companies.
The WHO International Pulse Survey on Continuity of Important Well being Companies throughout the COVID-19 pandemic carried out between November and December 2021 exhibits that almost all of the 36 African international locations that supplied full knowledge reported as much as 25% disruption of companies. The extent of the disruption remained largely unchanged from the primary quarter of 2021.
One other WHO survey in 11 African international locations discovered that maternal deaths in well being services in six of the 11 international locations rose by 16% on common between February and Might 2020 in contrast with the identical interval in 2019. The determine dropped barely in 2021 to 11%. Nevertheless, the estimate is more likely to be far greater as maternal deaths are likely to happen principally at dwelling moderately than in well being services. Knowledge present that facility-based births lowered in 45% of nations between November and December 2021 in contrast with the pre-pandemic interval.
“Two years on, the COVID-19 burden nonetheless weighs closely on ladies. Africa’s moms and daughters are struggling to entry the well being care they want. The pandemic’s disruptive drive will likely be felt by ladies for a few years to come back,” mentioned Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “Nations should look past short-term measures to revive companies to pre-pandemic ranges and make main investments for stronger techniques able to withstanding well being emergencies whereas guaranteeing continuity of key companies.”
In the course of the pandemic, ladies and ladies are going through a rising threat of sexual violence because of lockdowns, financial uncertainties, lower in entry to key assist and well being companies, and improve in stress in households. Globally, from the most recent evaluation finished in 2021, WHO estimates that 245 million ladies and ladies aged 15 years and above are subjected yearly to sexual and/or bodily violence perpetrated by an intimate companion. Sadly, in Africa, as a result of pandemic, companies to ladies who’ve skilled sexual violence declined in 56% of nations between November and December 2021 in contrast with the interval earlier than the pandemic.
The disruptions additionally affected the uptake of important reproductive well being provides. Between June and September 2021 contraceptive use fell in 48% of nations, in line with a speedy WHO survey in 21 African international locations. Teenage pregnancies additionally rose in some international locations. A 2021 report by the British Medical Journal discovered that adolescent secondary college ladies who had been out of faculty for six months as a result of COVID-19 lockdown in Kenya had been twice as more likely to turn into pregnant and thrice as more likely to drop out of faculty in contrast with these graduating simply previous to the pandemic. In South Africa, a research by the Medical Analysis Council in 5 provinces confirmed that teenage pregnancies have elevated by 60% for the reason that begin of the pandemic.
Past the well being impacts, COVID-19 can also be inflicting deep financial harm on ladies and ladies. The pandemic is poised to push extra ladies and ladies into excessive poverty. Poverty charges rose from 11.7% in 2019 to 12.5% in 2021 and it could take till 2030 to revert to pre-pandemic ranges, in line with a report by the Worldwide Financial Fund, the UN Growth Programme and the UN Ladies.
Globally in 2021, 247 million ladies aged 15 and above had been projected to dwell on lower than US$ 1.90 per day due the financial affect of COVID-19, with an estimated 53% (132milion) of them from sub-Saharan Africa.
The pandemic has additionally worsened current gender inequities in key spheres of life and growth. Though ladies represent 70% of the well being and social employees in Africa and are on the frontlines of COVID-19 response, few of them are in high pandemic administration positions, in line with the UN Growth Programme and the UN Ladies International Gender Response Tracker. Within the African area, 85% of nationwide COVID-19 job forces are led by males and solely 15% by ladies, and the general participation by ladies is just 30%.
Dr Moeti spoke throughout a digital press convention right now. She was joined by Dr Francine Ntoumi, President and Director-Normal, Congolese Basis for Medical Analysis, and Dr Eleanor Nwadinobi, President, Medical Ladies’s Worldwide Affiliation.
Additionally readily available from the WHO Regional Workplace for Africa to answer questions had been Dr Adelheid Onyango, Director Common Well being Protection/More healthy Populations, Dr Richard Mihigo, Coordinator, Immunization and Vaccines Growth Programme, Dr Thierno Balde, Regional COVID-19 Incident Supervisor, Dr Leopold Ouedraogo, Regional Adviser for Sexual and Reproductive Well being.
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