Malaria and abortion.

The first item in the programme is about malaria. Globally malaria kills about 2.7 million people each year. Malaria has become increasingly drug resistant. In the light of this, WHO has declared high priority for malaria. Paul Barrett, Director of the African division of SmithKline Beecham discusses a new drug which is found to be more effective by the WHO, and has been used in a new drug trial project. Second item in the programme is about abortion and women's health. In some parts of Africa up to to 50% of pregnanacy related deaths are caused by the use of unsterilized instruments used in surgical abortion. Dr Wendy Ewart, specialising in population studies at the Wellcome Trust, talks about a conference held in London convened by the Trust in January 1998. Forty two experts had come to discuss the safety issues in abortion. Abortion could be made safer by the use of drugs if taken in the early stages of pregnancy. The use of such drugs has been known in Western countries for nearly a decade, and yet they have been little used in the developing countries, partly due to ignorance of the technology.