EMERGENCY REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH KITS EN ROUTE TO KOSOVO REFUGEES

8 April 1999

Press Release
POP/722

EMERGENCY REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH KITS EN ROUTE TO KOSOVO REFUGEES

19990408 NEW YORK, 7 April (UNFPA) -- The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other United Nations agencies, announced today that it is sending emergency reproductive health kits, including equipment for safe deliveries and emergency contraceptives for rape victims, to Albania to help Kosovo refugees.

The kits will provide emergency reproductive health supplies for approximately 350,000 people for a period of three to six months. The supplies will be trucked from a warehouse in the Netherlands tomorrow (Thursday, 8 April) and are scheduled to arrive in Tirana late Saturday (10 April).

The kits, developed by a group of United Nations and non-governmental agencies, are designed to meet the reproductive needs of refugees and displaced people in emergency situations. They include clean delivery subkits for women who give birth in areas without medical facilities. These subkits include basic materials like soap, plastic sheeting, pictorial instructions and a razor blade for cutting the umbilical cord of a newborn.

The kits also include emergency contraception for victims of rape. Emergency contraception, also known as the "morning after" pill, is an elevated dose of birth control pills which prevent pregnancy when taken within 72 hours of intercourse occurring.

"UNFPA recognizes that all refugees and persons in emergency situations have the same vital human rights, including the right to reproductive health, as people in any community," said Dr. Nafis Sadik, the Fund's Executive Director. "The international community must act quickly to protect the displaced women of Kosovo from unwanted pregnancy and the risks of unattended childbirth."

The emergency reproductive health kit contains the following 12 subkits:

-- Clean delivery kit, where medical facilities are not available;

-- Post rape kit, medical and counselling treatment for consequences of sexual violence;

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-- Oral and injectable contraception kit, intended for women who have been using contraception or wish to begin using it;

-- Sexually transmitted diseases (STD) kit, intended to diagnose and treat STD's and explain how to prevent contraction;

-- Delivery kit, for use by trained personnel and for dealing with complicated deliveries;

-- Intra Uterine Devices (IUD), to place and remove IUDs;

-- Complications of abortion kit, for treating miscarriages or unsafe abortions;

-- Equipment for suturing cervical and vaginal tears and performing vaginal examinations;

-- Vacuum extraction equipment, used by medical personnel at assisted deliveries;

-- Referral level equipment, to be used in hospitals to perform caesarian section and to resuscitate mothers and babies;

-- Transfusion equipment, to perform safe blood transfusion;

-- Reference, training and administration kit; and

-- Condoms.

For more information, contact Corrie Shanahan at the United Nations Population Fund in New York, tel. (212) 297-5023, e-mail: shanahan@unfpa.org

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