Contraceptives shortage feared as stocks dip

Contraceptives are feared to be in short supply as the government’s current stocks of some major drugs and devices to prevent pregnancy are enough for meeting only three to four months’ requirements.
Having 12 months’ stock in hand is considered safe as procurements of contraceptives take 18 to 24 months from global sources through a cumbersome process, officials and family welfare activists say.
Family planning officials said the country had its lowest ever contraceptives stocks only for six months in 2004, resulting in declines in contraceptive use.
According to the Department of Family Planning, the country has a stock of oral pill for little over five months, injectables for four months, IUD for four moths and a half, condoms for more than two years and implant for two months and a half as of August 1.
Dr Jahir Uddin Ahmed, acting director general of the Family Planning Association of Bangladesh, a social organisation that campaigns for planned families, expressed deep concern over the government’s stocks and feared that birth control materials would go out of stock.
‘It might be the second biggest crisis of short supply of a number of contraceptives at a time after 2004. I heard the DG family planning was trying hard to overcome the crisis,’ Jahir told New Age.
MM Kaiser Rashid, acting country director of Deliver Project of USAID in Bangladesh which monitors the procurement and official stocks of contraceptives said that there might be sporadic stock-out in case of any disruption in the delivery of the materials.
‘At the end of June, procurement procedures of some contraceptive materials completed and these are expected to arrive in the country by the end of September. If there is any disruption in supply line, the country might see sporadic stock-out of some contraceptives,’ Rashid told New Age.
Mohammad Abdul Qayyum, director general of the Department 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 very short time, he hoped.
‘Supplies of all the commodities are on the pipeline and shipments of some have already started. So I do not think that the country will face any shortage of contraceptives,’ Qayyum told New Age on Wednesday.
The commodities, whose arrivals are already underway, will meet the country’s demands until 2012, the DG said adding that the department had been trying for the last few years to increase safe level of stockpiles for 18 months from 12 months now.
According to the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2007, the population of Bangladesh is increasing at a rate of 1.43 per cent (2 million) per year and Contraceptive Prevalence Rate has reached 55.8 per cent.
Latest data of the family planning department showed average monthly consumption included condoms 7.6 million pieces, pills 8.6 million cycles, injectables 1.2 million vials, IUD 25,000 sets and implant 20,000 sets.
Excepting negligible quantities of contraceptive supplies by the private sector, the government controls the supply of almost the total requirement of contraceptives.
Only about 13.8 per cent of total requirement of condoms and 6.5 per cent of other contraceptive materials are supplied by private sector facilities including drug shops, the survey revealed.
Demographers, reproductive health workers and economists observed that short or erratic supplies of contraceptives would lead to a surge in unintended pregnancy, preventable illness and unnecessary sufferings.
According to a study styled ‘Human and economic impact of shortage/stock-out of reproductive health supplies in Bangladesh,’ conducted by Human Development Research Centre, said 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 (MR) and 22,560 by abortion, while 47,000 children were born.
Professor Abul Barakat of economics department at Dhaka University, who coordinated the study during March 2008-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.
According to the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2007, overall 56 per cent of married women in Bangladesh are using a contraceptive method. Almost half (48 per cent) of them use a modern method like pill, IUD, injectables, implants, condoms, female sterilization and male sterilization— and 8 per cent use the traditional method of periodic abstinence and withdrawal.
Pill is by far the most widely used method (29 per cent), followed by injectables (7 per cent), female sterilization (5 per cent), periodic abstinence (5 per cent), male condoms (5 per cent), and withdrawal (3 per cent). Less than 1 per cent of women use IUD, implants, male sterilization, 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.
Asked about latest percentage of using family planning methods, Qayyum said that about 56 per cent people use pills, 18 per cent injectables and 9 per cent condoms.
The 2007 demographic survey showed that overall contraceptive use declined from 58 per cent in 2004 to 56 in 2007.
It attributed the decline in injectable use from 10 per cent in 2004 to 7 per cent in 2007 to significant shortage in injectable supplies in 2006-07 badly affecting public sector and NGO deliveries of family planning services.

Courtesy of NewAgebd