Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Little-Known, Cheap Blood-Clotting Drug Could Reduce Hemorrhages For Women After Labor
The New York Times: Inexpensive Drug Prevents Deaths In New Mothers, Study Finds
An inexpensive generic drug that saves the lives of wounded soldiers and civilian car crash victims has now been shown to rescue women suffering hemorrhages in childbirth. Postpartum hemorrhage, in which women bleed uncontrollably after childbirth, kills an estimated 100,000 women a year in poor and middle-income countries. The complication also forces doctors to perform emergency hysterectomies, especially when hospitals have too little blood on hand to provide transfusions. (McNeil, 4/26)
The Washington Post: Dangerous Bleeding After Childbirth Could Be Treated With A $1 Injection
The results of a remarkable clinical trial released Wednesday in the journal Lancet suggest that a single injection of an old drug — and one that costs less than $1 a dose — may be able to save tens of thousands of lives each year. ... In the study, known as the WOMAN (or World Maternal Antifibrinolytic) Trial, patients were randomized to receive either a placebo or tranexamic acid (TXA), which helps the blood to clot. The treatment, given intravenously, was used alongside other actions that emergency doctors would normally take to try to stop such bleeding. The trial was double-blind, meaning neither the doctors and researchers nor the patients knew what they got. (Cha, 4/26)
