Spend $5 and Save a Life

Spending less than $5 per person on healthcare services that include contraception, nutritional supplements, and medication for serious illnesses could save the lives of millions of mothers and children worldwide every year. That’s the news from an analysis from the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

Last year, more than 6 million children under age 5 died, and 300,000 women died from causes related to pregnancy. More than 95% of mother and child deaths in the world occur in 74 countries.

“Many of these deaths could be prevented if high-impact and affordable solutions reached the populations that needed them most,” says study leader Robert Black, PhD, a professor in the Department of International Health at the Bloomberg School. “Our analysis shows that expanding access to care to keep more mothers and children alive and healthy is feasible and a highly cost-effective investment.”

To come up with the $5 amount, the researchers looked at three essential packages of care presented in the “Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child Health” volume of “Disease Control Priorities,” third edition, published by the World Bank Group. Black is one of the authors. The three packages are maternal and newborn health, child health, and reproductive health. With more access to contraception, 28 million pregnancies could be prevented worldwide, which would save more than 1.5 million lives every year.

“For less than $5 per person, essential health services could reach the people who are most in need of them,” Black says. “Community health workers or primary health centers can deliver the majority of these services, which reduces the cost of expanding coverage.” The study results were published in “The Lancet.” The research was presented at the recent Consortium of Universities for Global Health conference. (To keep up with contraceptive news, subscribe to Contraceptive Technology Update, which is also published by AHC Media.)