West Africa: HIV and family planning should be better integrated - health authorities

Health Authorities from 15 West African countries are meeting in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, to see how family planning and HIV/ AIDS interventions can be more closely integrated for greater impact. "Both Family Planning and HIV/AIDS share the same clientele by affecting the same reproductive age group except in a few cases," Dr Wilfred Ochan of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)'s Africa Division and a Conference Facilitator told IRIN. "We should be able to make significant impact by addressing these two as an integrated and linked programme," Ochan added. Despite multi-million dollar spending on programmes to tackle HIV/AIDS, regional health workers say that family planning has been largely overlooked. West Africa alone accounts for 12 million out of the 39 million unwanted pregnancies that occurred in sub-Saharan Africa between 1994 and 2000, resulting in high maternal and infant mortality rates in the sub region. According to the West African Health Organisation, both maternal and infant mortality in the region are among the highest in the world averaging 1,100 per 100,000 and 99 per 1,000 live births respectively. "If family planning is to be repositioned, it will require the same kind of attention that the global community is giving to HIV/AIDS, poverty eradication and debt relief," Ghana's Health Minister, Major Courage Quarshigah, said at the conference.