International Women’s Day 2015: Why adolescent health?
Médecins Sans Frontières, 2 March 2015 - "Adolescent women are often overlooked, but they have specific health needs, writes Médecins Sans Frontières’ Women’s Health Advisor, obstetrician Dr Tane Luna.
As a medical humanitarian organisation, Médecins Sans Frontières values International Women’s Day (IWD) as an opportunity to reflect on the medical needs facing women in the countries where we work.
For IWD 2015 we’re focussing on the medical needs of our adolescent patients. Adolescent girls, who fall into the age range of 10 to 19 years, are often overlooked within the maternal and child health sector. Yet as they become sexually active they face a higher risk than adults of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, and of sexually transmitted infections including HIV. (...)
Pregnancies during adolescence can be particularly dangerous. In fact, maternal causes are the second highest killer of 15–19 year olds."