Just Emergencies Episode 2: Sexual and Reproductive Health in Global Health Emergencies

Contraceptive Pill Episode 2 Image

For the second episode of Just Emergencies, Dr. Catriona McMillan (twitter: @katy_mcmillan) discusses the issue of Sexual and Reproductive Health in Global Health Emergencies.

Listen to the episode or read the transcripts

Dr. McMillan’s recent research focuses on reproductive health regulation in Latin America following the 2015 – 2016 Zika outbreak. Her article is in development at the moment, so keep an eye out for that in the coming months.

The umbrella term ‘sexual and reproductive health’ covers everything from having access to sanitary towels to medical care during birth. Dr. McMillan explains how sexual health issues can become exacerbated (often along gender lines) during global health emergencies: women are at higher risk of pregnancy complications, there are often higher rates of sexual assault and rape, and sexual and reproductive health issues are repeatedly pushed to the back-burner as treating other (acute) health needs take priority.

She also talks about the 2015 – 2016 Zika outbreak and what role she believes health policy and regulation should have in improving sexual and reproductive health.

To find out more, listen to Episode 2 of ‘Just Emergencies’: Sexual and Reproductive Health in Global Health Emergencies

Acronyms mentioned in the episode

UN: United Nations

WHO: World Health Organisation

Links and Further Resources

On Sexual and Reproductive Health during Global Health Emergencies

UNFPA (2019). Sexual & reproductive health. United Nations Population Fund. 

WHO (2012). Integrating sexual and reproductive health into health emergency and disaster risk management. Geneva: WHO.

WHO. Seuxal and reproductive healthWorld Health Organisation. 

Health Cluster (2019). Sexual reproductive health and rights in emergencies. Health Cluster: World Health Organisaton. 

On the Zika virus

WHO (2018). Zika virus disease. World Health Organisation.

WHO. Zika virus and complications: 2016 Public Health Emergency of International Concern. World Health Organisation. 

 


Credits

‘Just Emergencies’ is produced and edited by Rebecca Richards and made with funding from the Wellcome Trust.

Image by Simone van der Koelen on Unsplash.

Our intro song is ‘The sun comes up, I come down’ by Silicon Transmitter.

Our outro song is ‘Surge and Swell’ by Pictures of the Floating World.

Both are available under an Attribution-Noncommerical-ShareAlike3.0 Creative Commons License from Free Music Archive.