low cost fertility treatments for Africa

Alaska · Coal Joined: Jul 19, 2008 Posts: 1

Thought you might find this as amusing as I did Shocked

BARCELONA, Spain - Doctors are getting ready to introduce a cheap in vitro fertilization procedure across Africa, where women are sometimes ostracized as witches or social outcasts if they cannot have children.

Millions of dollars go into family planning projects and condom distribution to prevent pregnancies in Africa, but experts said that more than 30 percent of women on the continent are unable to have children. An estimated 80 million people in developing countries are infertile worldwide.

"Infertility is taboo in Africa," said Willem Ombelet, head of a task force at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology looking into infertility in developing countries. "Nobody has paid attention to this issue, but it is a huge problem and we need to do something."

At a media briefing Monday at the society's annual conference in Barcelona, Ombelet said he and colleagues were deciding where to test the new procedure.

A small number of women already have been treated in Khartoum, Sudan, and other projects are expected to start soon in South Africa and Tanzania.

Sembuya Rita, an infertility activist from Uganda, said it was essential for public health officials to address the issue. "It's a fundamental right for every person to have a child," she said.

Rita said infertile women in Africa can face particular economic hardships — their husbands may leave them for other women and they can be cut out of family inheritances.

The cheap version of IVF costs less than $200. Standard IVF treatments in the West cost up to $10,000.

Instead of using expensive lab equipment and medicines, experts said cheaper options could also work. For instance, rather than using an expensive incubator to create an embryo, Ombelet said that a water bath could be used.

Less expensive medicines also would effectively stimulate women's ovaries to produce more eggs, and spending could be further trimmed by using low-cost needles and catheters.

But because fewer eggs would be produced by using cheaper drugs, the success rate would also be lower. In developed countries, IVF is usually successful in about 20 percent of cases. In Africa, Ombelet estimates it would probably be about 15 percent.

The inexpensive procedure has been used on cows and a small number of women. Researchers in the United States are working on developing an even cheaper IVF procedure that might be more effective.

Despite dozens of other health priorities — from AIDS to pneumonia to malaria — experts said it was worthwhile to introduce a budget version of IVF.

In Africa, where infertility is more common than in the West, the problems often follow unsafe deliveries, abortions or infections.

"The cost of being infertile in Africa is much greater than in the West," said Oluwole Akande, an emeritus professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Akande acknowledged the price of the procedure would still be available only to Africa's upper and middle classes.

He said that in many parts of Africa women who are unable to have children become social outcasts, are labeled as witches, and in extreme cases, are even driven to suicide.

Experts said that even if millions of women were treated with low-cost IVF, it would only result in a one to two percent boost in the overall population.

But with limited funds for public health, officials admitted it would be a tough sell.

"It's definitely going to be viewed as a lower priority," said Dr. Sheryl Vanderpoel, a reproductive health expert at the World Health Organization.

WHO has traditionally been focused on family planning and preventing sexually transmitted diseases rather than helping solve infertility problems.

Vanderpoel said that might start to change once it was clear that low-cost solutions were possible.

"If you remove the fixed costs, it is actually not that expensive to create an embryo in a dish," she said. "This doesn't come with all the bells and whistles, but it works."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080707/ap_on_re_af/africa_cheap_fertility;_ylt=As.poYsCWWVj7IUd7dum01BvaA8F[/align]

Cochise · Tar Sands Joined: Jun 13, 2008 Posts: 53 Location: LA

It is not amusing. It is worrying.

I understand that cultural issues are the hardest to fight, but how about trying to bring some education instead of trying to get even more women pregnant!

But then again, i guess convincing Africans that infertile women are not witches is as hard as convincing westerners to be less consumerists...

CarlosFerreira

I thought this was a joke, and besides your news link isn't working.

Then, I found this in ESHRE's website:

http://www.eshre.com/emc.asp?pageId=1010

Doesn't sound like a joke. Can I suggest this?

http://www.zpg.org

I'm afraid if these people have their way, the African current quasi-Malthusian-catastrophe will just solve itself through hunger, disease, famine and war. Have these guys heard anything about Rwanda? Do they know?

I'm not against treating people. But doing this is more expensive and potentially more harmful than educating people.
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Cashmere · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Mar 27, 2008 Posts: 1971

Africa is doomed.

Doooooooooooooooooooooooomed.
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Massive Human Dieoff must occur as a result of Peak Oil. Many more than half will die. It will occur everywhere, including where you live. If you fail to recognize this, then your odds of living move toward the "going to die" group.

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Mack12345 · Tar Sands Joined: Jun 02, 2008 Posts: 78

holy crap ... they want to increse population in africa ?!?!

oh man .

Jenab6

CarlosFerreira