This is Bill White withthe VOA Special English Development Report.
Each year, more than five-hundred-thousand women in developingcountries die while giving birth to babies. One of the causes formany of these deaths is a condition called pre-eclampsia. Up toeight percent of all pregnant women around the world develop thiscondition. Signs of pre-eclampsia include high blood pressure andprotein in the fluid waste from a woman’s body.
If the condition is not identifiedand treated, pre-eclampsia can quickly progress to a severecondition called eclampsia. This condition can result in death forthe mother if it is not treated. Researchers estimate fifty-thousandwomen in mostly poor countries die of eclampsia each year.
Scientists say that a simple drug called magnesium sulphate cantreat pre-eclampsia. Researchers recently studied the effects of thedrug on more than ten-thousand pregnant women living in thirty-threecountries. All the women were being treated in hospitals forpre-eclampsia. The researchers gave half the women injections ofmagnesium sulphate. The other women were given an injection of aninactive substance, known as a placebo.
Scientists found that magnesium sulphate stopped the progressionto eclampsia in fifty-eight percent of the women. They say the drugalso probably reduced the risk of death among the women who receivedit. A researcher at the Institute for Health at Oxford University inBritain organized the study. The results were published last monthin The Lancet.
Scientists do not know what causes pre-eclampsia. However,doctors say women with high blood pressure or those pregnant for thefirst time are most at risk. Women who are very young or very old atthe time they become pregnant are also more at risk.
Women in the United States with pre-eclampsia have been treatedwith magnesium sulphate for many years. The drug does not cost muchmoney. However, women with the condition must receive the drug byinjection while in a hospital. The drug does not work if it isswallowed.
Researchers hope the World Health Organization will press drugcompanies to produce more magnesium sulphate. Then there would beenough of the drug for the countries that need it. Experts say thiswould save the lives of thousands of women every year.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by JillMoss. This is Bill White.