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Shortage of Contraceptives

Experts fear surge in unwanted pregnancy

Alpha Arzu
Contraceptives are feared to be in short supply in the country as the government's current stock of some major drugs and devices to avoid pregnancy will meet the requirements of four to six months only, said a high official of health and family welfare ministry.
"If any government has one year's stock then it is considered as safe because purchasing of contraceptives takes at least two years from international sources through many process,” the official added.
Sources at the ministry informed that the country has a stock of oral pill for about six months, injectables for four months, intra-uterine device (IUD) for about five months, condoms for more than two years and implant for two months.
According to a survey of the family planning department, average monthly consumption of condoms included 7.6 million pieces, pills 8.6 million cycles, injectables 1.2 million vials, IUD 25,000 sets and implant 20,000 sets.
Only about 13.8 percent of
total requirement of condoms and 6.5 percent of other contraceptive materials are supplied by private sector including drug shops, the survey added.
Health and Family Welfare Minister AFM Ruhal Haque told The Daily Star recently, "As per my knowledge the stock is enough for a year. Anyway, I will check it and take necessary steps in this regard."
However, officials of the family planning directorate said the country had its lowest ever contraceptives stocks only for six months in 2004 resulting in the decline of contraceptive use, and this year will face the second lowest stockofcontraceptives.
AJ Faisel, country director of EngenderHealth that provides technical support to public health establishments for reproductive health, has expressed its concern over the shortage of contraceptives.
According to a study titled 'Human and economic impact of shortage or stockout of reproductive health supplies in Bangladesh' con-ducted by Human Development Research Centre, 159,800 unexpected
pregnancies were caused due to shortage or irregular supply of three most-used methods of contraception.
Of them. 90,240 pregnancies were lost through menstrual regulations and 22,560 by abortion, while 47,000 children were born.
Prof Abul Barakat of economics department at Dhaka University, who coordinated the study from March 2008 to February 2009, found that total loss caused to sufferers due to a shortage of oral pills, injections and condoms during the period was equivalent to 4,306 million hours in terms of time and Tk 61,353 million in terms of monetary value.
M A Qayyum, director general of the Directorate of Family Planning, however, said there will be no shortage of birth control commodities as procurement contracts for major drugs and devices have already been completed.
The materials will reach the country within a very short time, he added.
"I do not think that the country will face any shortage of contraceptives,” he said, adding that the contraceptive devices including oral pills,
injectables, IUD and implant devices, whose arrivals are already underway, will meet die country's demands for next three years.
According to Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2007, the country's population has been increasing al a rate of 1.43 percent (2 million) per year and contraceptive prevalence rate has reached 55.8 percent.
Reproductive health experts observed that the shortage of contraceptive supplies would lead to a surge in unintended pregnancy, preventable illness and unnecessary sufferings.
According to Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2007, 56 percent of married women in the country are using a contraceptive method. Almost half (48 percent) of them use a modern method like pill, IUD, injectables, implants, condoms, female sterilisation and male sterilisation while eight percent use the traditional method of periodic abstinence and withdrawal.
Pill is by far the most widely used method (29 percent), followed by injectables (7 percent), female sterilisation (5 percent), periodic abstinence (5 percent), male condoms (5 percent), and withdrawal (3 percent).
Less than one percent of women use IUD, implants, male sterilisation, and traditional methods other than periodic abstinence and withdrawal.
Use of oral pills has continued to rise, but a two-decade trend of increasing injectable use was interrupted in 2007.
The 2007 demographic survey showed that overall contraceptive use declined from 58 percent in 2004 to 56 percent in 2007.
It attributed the decline in injectable use from 10 percent in 2004 to seven percent in 2007 to significant shortage in injectable supplies in 2006-07 badly, affecting public.<$ectoti and NGO-deliveries of. family planning services.