$25M gift to U-M will help Third World moms, babies
Robin Erb, Detroit Free Press Medical Writer
An anonymous donor has given the University of Michigan $25 million to bring reproductive health medicine to remote areas in Africa.
With the funds, a new center at U-M’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology will create a center for reproductive health training, which in turn will boost the number of health providers who will serve those areas, in particularly women whose families are poor.
Reproductive health issues are a leading cause death and poor health outcomes for women of childbearing age around the world. Women in developing countries suffer disproportionately from unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, sexually transmitted infections and death in childbirth.
“Every day, women across the globe are dying and suffering from poor health outcomes because they don’t have access to high quality, comprehensive reproductive health care,” said Dr. Senait Fisseha, the center’s director, according to the announcement released this morning.
Fisseha was born in Ethiopia and is a reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialist at the U-M Health System.
Building on an existing partnership with St. Paul Hospital Millennium Medical College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, U-M will expand services at seven other medical schools through Ethiopia.
Women’s health is a particularly urgent health concern there, where the maternal mortality ratio is 420 for every 100,000 births, compared to 28 per 100,000 births in the U.S., according to U-M.
Original article: Detroit Free Press
