New York, July 9: The already low infection rate linked with the pills
used to induce abortion can be reduced to negligible levels, if such pills are
consumed orally along with antibiotics, suggests the results of a large study.
Currently, such pills can be taken by three different methods. In addition to
normal swallow, the drug can be taken through the vaginal route and for the
third way, which is known as the 'buccal method', the pill is placed between the
gums and the cheek and is allowed to liquefy.
Opt for the non vaginal route
The present study, conducted and paid for by Planned Parenthood, the largest
abortion provider in the U.S., examined the records of 227,823 women opted for
abortions between the January of 2005 and the June 2008.
The study found that the abortion pill, Mifeprex, was effective about 98.5
percent of the times. Furthermore, changes in how the drug was administered,
reduced the risk of a grave infection from 1 in 1,000 cases to a mere 0.06 in
1,000 cases.
Mary Fjerstad, a nurse practitioner and the lead author of the study, said, “Our
data show there was a reduction in serious infections when we switched to a
nonvaginal route of misoprostol administration.”
“But I don’t want to come down on the side of saying that everybody everywhere
should give antibiotics with every medical abortion. Providers should decide
that,” she cautioned.
Safe procedure can be made safer
The current procedure of abortions induced with the help of abortion pills,
involve swallowing Mifeprex, which causes the embryo to detach from the uterine
wall. Therafter, a second pill, Misoprostol, is given after 24 to 48 hours to
cause contractions and shove the embryo out of the uterus [Also called the womb,
the uterus is a hollow, pear-shaped organ located in a woman's lower abdomen,
between the bladder and the rectum, that sheds its lining each month during
menstruation and in which a fertilized egg implants and grows into a fetus. ] .
Prior to 2005, the procedure involved putting the Misoprostol pill into the
vagina where the medicine dissolved. Few infections linked to the procedure led
to a change in practice.
"This is the first really huge documentation of how safe and effective medical
abortion is," said Dr. Beverly Winikoff, a professor of family health and
population at Columbia University.
"We decided we needed to make a safe procedure even safer," said Mary Fjerstad.
Source : The New England Journal of Medicine.
