Cheap drug could avert thousands of deaths due to haemorrhage in child-birth

A cheap and widely available drug could prevent the death of thousands of women in childbirth from excessive bleeding, one of the main killers of women worldwide.

The drug, tranexamic acid, was available over the counter in the UK to women suffering from heavy periods and in Japan and far east, it was used as a skin whitener. However, according to a large study of 20,000 women in 21 countries it could stop a third of cases of bleeding to death after giving birth.

Haemorrhage following childbirth killed 100,000 women a year, mostly in low and middle-income countries. ''It is not only the women dying – it is the impact on the child that has to grow up without a mother, children who might already be in the family and the husband,'' said associate professor Haleema Shakur from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine who led the trial, The Guardian reported.

''This is of absolutely huge importance. While a single mother is dying, we need to keep fighting for them.''

In the latest trial, published in The Lancet medical journal, over 20,000 women were recruited. They either gave birth in one of 193 hospitals involved or managed to get there after starting to bleed. They were randomly assigned either tranexamic acid or a placebo.

The researchers found that tranexamic acid was most effective when administered soon after the bleeding began.

The drug cost only £3 and could lower the risk of death by a third among mothers who suffered major bleeding after childbirth.

It was currently in use as a last resort for women who suffered a major haemorrhage soon after giving birth.

Experts had called for the medicine to be become the 'frontline' treatment for post-partum hemorrhage, following a major international trial, which found it reduced deaths by 31 per cent.