This Drug Can Save Lakhs Of Mother's Lives During Child Birth & It's Been Lost For 50 Years!
Despite being developed in the 1960's medicine has largely ignored tranexamic acid, until now.
Way back in the 1960s, a female Japanese doctor developed a potent drug to help mothers who hemorrhage during childbirth. Not only was it affordable to to make and safe, it was also the perfect way to quickly stop bleeding and help clotting.
Dr Utako Okamoto hoped that her drug, tranexamic acid, would be used to save pregnant women¡¯s lives in childbirth, but the formula went relatively unused for decades. That is, until now.
Researchers from the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, led by Haleema Shakur, have now demonstrated that tranexamic acid can decrease the risk of death from blood loss during childbirth by a third. The results are huge as it¡¯s estimated that about 100,000 die of blood loss every year, soon after their baby is born.
The study also showed that the drug has no serious side effects, and doesn¡¯t cause risks in the case of any other medical conditions. The researchers tested more than 20,000 women for the drug in nearly 200 hospitals across 21 countries, including well off ones like the UK, and poorer regions like Pakistan and Nigeria.
Most importantly, the drug is really cheap, and costs only about $3 in the UK (approximately Rs 192), and a quarter of that amount in Pakistan. ¡°If you can save a life for approximately $3, then I believe that's worth doing,¡± Shakur told NPR.
The only question now, is how doctors can make the drug available to women in poor countries, in the remotest parts of the globe.
