Postpartum haemorrhage: Cheap lifesaver 'cuts deaths by a third'

By James GallagherHealth Check, BBC World Service

A cheap drug has been shown to stop women bleeding to death, in a discovery that should change practice around the world, say researchers.
Yearly, thousands of women die from excessive bleeding in the moments after giving birth. It's really sad that is more common in developing countries like Rwanda,Nigeria,Benin and so on.
But an international study, in the Lancet, suggests "tranexamic acid" could cut that by a third.
Postpartum haemorrhage is the most common cause of death within 6 weeks of motherhood.
Nosheen, from Rawalpindi, in Pakistan who nearly died after the birth of her daughter, said 'I was given 41 bottles of blood'
Nosheen's life was saved only by emergency surgical removal of her uterus called hysterectomy.
She said: "Doctors told me they would remove my uterus so i wont die''
"My health is completely destroyed, and I'm very sad right now"
Tranexamic acid might have helped Nosheen.
It stops the lysing of blood clots to make it easier for the body to stem bleeding.
It was invented by husband and wife Shosuke and Utako Okamoto in Japan in the 1960s.

Utako Okamoto in her lab in 1961But they were not able to convince local doctors to perform a clinical trial for postpartum haemorrhage.
So instead it was picked up by a pharmaceutical company and used as a treatment for menorraghia(heavy menstrual period)
And there the story nearly ended.
Eventually, a study was coordinated by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in a collaboration of 193 hospitals mostly in Africa and Asia.
Prof Utako Okamoto died, aged 98, just after the 20,000th and final patient was enrolled on to the trial that would finally prove she had been right.
Lifesaving
Tranexamic acid was found to cut deaths by a fifth overall and by 31% in those given the drug within three hours of birth.
Prof Ian Roberts, one of the researchers, told the BBC: "We've got an important result.
"We found an inexpensive drug, given in a single shot, that reduces the risk of bleeding to death, and hopefully will play a role in reducing maternal mortality in developing countries and even in developing countries"
The WHO said it would update its recommendations for treating postpartum haemorrhage treatment.
The findings wouldn't have been much of a surprise to Utako.
The UK team went to visit the "physically small, but so switched-on firecracker" near the start of the trial.
Her husband had already died.
She told them: "It's going to be good, it will be effective''
" Even without doing the research, I'm sure it will be very effective."
In the poverty of post-War Japan, she and her husband started researching blood because they could donate their own samples to study.
She said "We wanted to work on something international, we wanted to discover new drugs to show our gratitude to humanity''
Prof Roberts says he was blown away and inspired by her and this is not the end of the journey.
The drug might be cheap, but it will still be a challenge getting it into hospitals around the world.
Prof Roberts added: "It is an terrible thing for a mother to die in childbirth''
"When we started the trial, the staff would cry whem they hear babies crying without their mothers.
"Making sure the treatment is available everywhere it's needed is hugely important.
"We shouldn't have children growing up without a mother all because of lack of a drug that costs a dollar."
Dr Rizwana Chaudri, from Rawalpindi Medical College, said: "Women dying of postpartum haemorrhage, women brought dead to the hospital, there's so many of them.
"You can't even think of that in a developed world, but over here this is a daily thing that goes on and on and on."
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