Misoprostol in Pharmacies and Health Facilities - Senegal - Studies

A 2013 survey of pharmacists in Dakar found that despite high levels of knowledge about misoprostol (72% had heard of the drug), only 35% of pharmacists stocked the drug. In addition, most misoprostol sales were related to gastric ulcers (70%) with only 8% of sales related to post-abortion care or abortion (Reiss et al., 2017). Among pharmacists who had heard of misoprostol but were not selling it at the time of the study, up to 42% indicated that they did not want to sell abortifacient products (Population Council and Step Up, 2016).
A community-based maternal and newborn health study conducted between 2013 and 2014 in the Kolda region, where up to 56% of births occur at home, suggests that access to misoprostol is even more limited in rural areas. In a sample of 1,925 women who had given birth in the past year, less than 10% were aware of misoprostol as a medication to prevent postpartum hemorrhage, and less than 5% had received the medication during delivery (ISED 2014).
A study of postabortion care in eight facilities in the Dakar region found that while misoprostol was among the three most commonly used forms of uterine evacuation, at $62 per patient, it was not significantly cheaper than surgical methods such as MVA ($99) (Baynes et al., 2021a).