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HEALTHWATCH
Mother
of all Pills
A new
abortion drug allows termination of early pregnancies but is dogged by
controversy
An
adolescent girl is sexually assaulted and doesn't want to get pregnant.
A mother of two is at the mercy of a husband who refuses to use a condom
even though they cannot afford another child. A college girl is fraught
with terror because the condom broke during intercourse with her boyfriend.
Four decades after the contraceptive pill "liberated" the modern
woman, they still seem to be at the mercy of their bodies. Now it needn't
be that way thanks to a new "abortion drug" called ru-486 that
can be taken in the privacy of home. "The procedure is quite safe
and is quietly offered by many gynaecologists. Unfortunately very few
women know about it," says Dr Aniruddh Malpani, a Mumbai-based fertility
specialist. However, many gynaecologists aren't so sure, pointing out
that the drug is controversial in countries like the US.
 RU-486,
a hormone-modulating drug that has been used reliably on half a million
women in Europe and China, allows a doctor to terminate early pregnancies
in a personal, non-invasive and convenient way. No more surgery, anaesthesia
or furtive visits to an abortion clinic. However the procedure must be
closely monitored by an experienced gynaecologist. RU-486 contains a chemical
called mifepristone that blocks progesterone, the pregnancy promoting
hormone. Women less than eight weeks pregnant are administered mifepristone
which makes the uterus shed its protective lining and detach the foetus.
Later, this is followed up with prostaglandin, a drug routinely used in
the treatment of ulcers, which causes the fertilised ovum to be forcibly
expelled through the vagina. This is followed by 14 days of heavy bleeding,
similar to the effect of a normal miscarriage. Although ru-486 is yet
to be approved by the Indian Food and Drug Administration, two brands
are "unofficially" available in the grey market. One is by Roussel,
the French pharma giant which pioneered ru-486. The other is a Chinese
brand clandestinely marketed by chemists to select gynaecologists. The
entire "package" costs Rs 2,000, plus, of course, the gynaec's
fees. Clinical trials carried out recently in India show that ru-486 is
much safer than regular abortion.
"Contraception
and abortion are choices which every woman has a right to know about and
make," says Dr Duru Shah, vice-president of the Federation of Obstetric
and Gynae-cological Society of India. Especially in a society where biology
and gender can still determine a person's destiny.
-Farah
Baria
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Blinding
Figures
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| India
led the world in 1976 with the first-ever comprehensive national programme
to combat blindness. In 2000, it still has the highest number of blind
people in the world: 8.9 million. Ninety per cent of them have been
blinded by conditions that can be prevented or cured. Cataract, generally
curable, accounts for 80 per cent of the cases. But the sight restoring
rate here, says a who report, is only 21 per cent. |
Hooked
Young:
It's a generation  going
up in smoke. A recent who survey of 13-15 year olds says one in five schoolchildren
in developing countries smokes. Nearly 25 per cent of them started the
habit before the age of 10. More than half, and in some countries almost
90 per cent of them, wished to stop the habit, and two-thirds had actually
tried to do so in the 12 months before the survey. The
WHO report also mentions that tobacco companies are now targeting developing
countries as the anti-smoking lobby gets more vociferous in the industrialised
nations.
Top
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In
India, youth is marked by impetuosity and prevented from getting ahead.
Elsewhere, of course, the young rule the world, says INDIA TODAY Deputy
Editor Swapan Dasgupta in 
