Refugee women risk miscarriages, WHO says

Many pregnant refugees face the possibility of miscarriages because they are dehydrated, tired, undernourished and exposed to malaria as they flee fighting around the southwest Guinean town of Guekedou, WHO said on Monday.

Before the outbreak of the fighting, WHO said, most health posts had no birth delivery instruments, gloves, equipment for monitoring blood pressure, tape measures or plastic sheets for women in labour to lie on.

Now, two delivery kits are available at the Kuntaya refugee camp, north of Guekedou, but more are needed, WHO said. It also called for money to train midwives and traditional birth assistants from among the refugees. High on the list of priorities, WHO said, was the need to shore up the referral hospital in Kissidougou, north of Kuntaya, "which is the only centre available for complicated births", and health centres in the area.