Poor training of nurses may have led to severe reactions to a new contraceptive device. The Mail & Guardian reports that the Department of Health introduced the implant, produced by pharmaceutical company MSD, in April last year to broaden contraceptive options in the public health sector in an effort to reduce unplanned pregnancies. The device, made of silicone, is inserted under local anaesthesia.
But Sindi Kuhlase, the Volksrust branch organiser of the activist organisation the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), says the Mpumalanga clinic Vukuzahke, where she is stationed, stopped using the contraceptive implant last year, just months after it was introduced, because of the number of women who presented with side effects.
"They all had the same story. They experienced rashes, headaches and irregular (menstrual) flow. Since last year, the nurses don’t insert it anymore, they only remove it now," Kuhlase said. "I don't know if the research was wrong. In other places it seems to be fine – they don't have problems."
The deputy director general for maternal and child health in the Department of Health, Yogan Pillay, said his department was aware of the problems with the device in Mpumalanga. "We think there was a problem in the quality of the training (for nurses), so we’ve stopped insertions in Mpumalanga. We've looked at why these things are happening in the province and now we’re retraining everyone," he said.
But, the report says, other provinces also seem to be experiencing problems with the Implanon NXT. Portia Serote, the TAC's national women's representative, said she had personally dealt with "a large number of women in Gauteng who had the Implanon NXT removed because they were experiencing excessive bleeding". Serote said similar cases were being reported by other provinces.
Pillay argued that all "artificial" products come with side effects. "When you're implementing anything new, you have to be extra vigilant and extra careful. The important thing about any contraceptive is to explain to the woman that 'you will have headaches, maybe irregular – less or more bleeding compared to what you usually expect'," he said. But Pillay admitted that the training of health workers might not be up to standard.
[link url="http://mg.co.za/article/2015-05-21-birth-control-implant-needs-a-shot-in-the-arm"]Full Mail & Guardian report[/link]