COVID-19 Has Wreaked Havoc on Sexual and Reproductive Health Worldwide — and Digital Interventions Could be the Key to Fixing It
COVID-19 Deepens Existing Health Disparities
On April 8th, NBC News reported that one in four adults in the United States is now fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Overall, 40% of all adults and 75% of senior citizens have received at least one dose. It’s good news for the U.S., and a sign that the era of quarantines, lockdowns, and Zoom happy hours are coming to an eagerly-anticipated end. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of much of the rest of the world, including low- and middle-income countries.
Africa has been hit particularly hard. So far this year, COVID-19 fatalities across the continent are on the rise — increasing by 40% in January alone — resulting in a new slew of lockdowns. And yet, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Regional Office for Africa, less than 2% of all COVID-19 vaccinations administered to date worldwide have been in Africa. The problem, says Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, is limited stocks and supply bottlenecks. “Africa is already playing COVID-19 vaccination catch-up, and the gap is widening. While we acknowledge the immense burden placed by the global demand for vaccines, inequity can only worsen scarcity.”
South Asia is another region in urgent need of vaccines. Earlier this week, India surpassed Brazil as the world’s second-worst COVID-19 outbreak. This is troubling for a number of reasons, not the least of which are India’s large population and historically poor tracking of COVID-19 infections and fatalities. In the midst of a second wave, lockdowns and vaccination efforts have intensified; so far, only 1% of India’s population is fully vaccinated.
COVID-19 Disrupts Sexual and Reproductive Health Services
Some of the most disastrous effects of COVID-19 on Africa and other regions with similar delays in vaccine supply and delivery may be sustained disruptions to the health system. Last year, the Guttmacher Institute estimated that the disruption in essential sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care and increased burden of care work on women caused by COVID-19 would lead to an additional 48 million women with an unmet need for modern contraceptives and 15.4 million unintended pregnancies. UNFPA, similarly, anticipated an additional 13 million child marriages that otherwise would not have taken place, and a 33% reduction in progress toward ending gender-based violence and female genital mutilation by 2030. And shockingly, UNICEF posited that the number of child and maternal deaths caused by the expected disruption of SRH services would actually far outnumber deaths caused by COVID-19 itself.
Recent reports, unfortunately, appear to support these predictions. One Rutgers study found that 58% of young people in Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Nepal, Uganda, and Zimbabwe did not receive comprehensive sex education due to school closures and lack of access to online teaching (if and when it was available). Equally alarming, 30% of young women lost access to much-needed health services due to lack of transportation, facility closures, and fear of infection; services like sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing and treatment, cervical cancer screening, contraception consultation, and abortion. This finding is especially disturbing, considering the increase in young women engaging in early marriage and transactional sex across all countries.
Technology as a Solution
The benefit of digital health interventions in the era of COVID-19 is self-evident. Many countries saw multi-sectoral tech solutions underway early on in the pandemic; mandatory contact tracing through mobile phones and tracking bracelets, virtual health consultations, 3D mask-printing, and public health education campaigns on social media are just a few examples. The CDC recognizes telehealth, specifically, as effective in both facilitating the delivery of existing health services as well as expanding health care delivery in medically or socially vulnerable populations. Interventions like these are particularly effective for young people; the aforementioned Rutgers study found that among those who lacked information on COVID-19 and SRH, 50% turned to online sources like WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter.
These trends have held true in the experience of Nivi Inc., whose digital health platform, askNivi, offers vital health information to its users at a time when in-person care is difficult to access. While askNivi was founded in 2015, well before the onset of the current pandemic, the chatbot’s immediate availability on phones has proven invaluable over the past year. Through free and popular messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, users in India, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa have been turning to Nivi — askNivi’s virtual health companion — for health information and services. And, although Nivi offers information on a range of health topics from COVID-19 to abortion, the majority of content is SRH-related in nature; making Nivi an ideal tool for mitigating both short and long-term damage caused by COVID-19’s disruption in SRH services worldwide.
COVID-19 has changed the global landscape of health information and service delivery, and digital interventions have stepped in to fill the void. Because of its high accessibility and promises of privacy and discretion, platforms like askNivi have proven advantageous in traditionally underserved regions, and are therefore making traction in low and middle-income countries. However, they’re also well-positioned to help populations with a high proportion of children and young adults, who are already turning to tech for their medical needs; thus doubly beneficial to countries like India, where Nivi already operates.
While the impact of COVID-19 on SRH is severe, and we’ll likely be seeing its effects on women’s and children’s health indicators for years to come, there is a path to recovery. More than ever, that path looks digital.
If you’d like to use askNivi to learn more about your target audience and their needs, contact Ben Bellows (ben@nivi.io) or Sidd Goyal (sidd@nivi.io). If you’d like to learn more about how we can generate insights for you, contract Diana Klatt (diana@nivi.io).
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