With thanks to Jackeline Alger, lead moderator of HIFA-Spanish https://www.hifa.org/rss-feeds/96834259
Extracts below and a comment from me. Read in full: https://www.who.int/news/item/18-06-2025-equity-and-health--the-inclusio...
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Martina Penazzato, Research for Health Department at WHO: “Imagine having a chronic condition when you're pregnant and not knowing if you can safely continue your medication – that is the reality for many women today."
Equity and health: the inclusion of pregnant and breastfeeding women in clinical trials
'Pregnant and breastfeeding women have historically been excluded from medical research, resulting in substantial gaps in evidence on the safety and efficacy of medicines and vaccines during these critical periods. This exclusion has led to fragmented health policies and inconsistent clinical recommendations for prevention and treatment. The UN’s Special Programme in Human Reproduction (HRP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are working to reduce these preventable deaths by promoting best practices to include pregnant and breastfeeding women in research in an ethical way...'
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COMMENT (NPW): Access to reliable healthcare information depends fundamentally on the generation of evidence through robust research, as shown in the global evidence ecosystem: https://www.hifa.org/about-hifa/hifa-vision-mission-strategy There are a number of concerns about including pregnant women in clinical trials, among which is the potential for increasing the risk of birth defects. These are outlined in this paper: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3547525/#:~:text=A%20major%20im... However, the exclusion of pregnant and breastfeeding women from research creates a major gap in research evidence. It will be interesting to understand better how to address this gap while minimising the potential for harm to to research subjects.
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org