A recent review drawing on lessons from past pandemics shows the length of quarantine increases the risk for serious psychological consequences. A relevant, yet frequently ignored risk during a pandemic and its socially disrupting response, is the potential increase of intimate partner violence (IPV).
The HIV pandemic provides lessons for the response to the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: no vaccine is available for either and there are no licensed pharmaceuticals for COVID-19, just as there was not for HIV infection in the early years. Population behavior will determine the pandemic trajectory of COVID-19,1 just as it did for HIV.
In collaboration with Harvard Health Publishing, the COVID-19 Health Literacy Project has created and translated accessible information into 35+ different languages on COVID-19 prevention, management, pregnancy, and information for children.
A civil society call to action on mitigating COVID-19 impacts on sexual and reproductive health and rights in low- and middle-income countries, taking into account gender dynamics and inequalities, available in French and Spanish.
Any measures taken to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic must uphold and ensure human rights. States must ensure that their response is gender-sensitive and includes a different approach that guarantees the rights of women and girls to live free of discrimination and violence and to access the essential sexual and reproductive health services that they need as women.
Disease outbreaks affect women and men differently, and pandemics make existing inequalities for women and girls and discrimination of other marginalized groups such as persons with disabilities and those in extreme poverty, worse. This needs to be considered, given the different impacts surrounding detection and access to treatment for women and men.
Guttmacher used data on sexual and reproductive health service provision from 132 low- and middle-income countries to estimate the impact of pandemic-related challenges on the provision of core services and subsequent health outcomes.
This blog post highlights the value of contraceptive self-injection in emergency settings, including disease outbreaks. It links to tools and resources that may be useful in expanding access to self-injection of DMPA-SC during the COVID-19 response.
This brief highlights emerging evidence of the impact of the recent global pandemic of COVID-19 on violence against women and girls. It makes recommendations to be considered by all sectors of society, from governments to international organizations and to civil society organizations, in order to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls, at the onset, during, and after the public health crisis, with examples of actions already taken. It also considers the economic impact of the pandemic and its implications for violence against women and girls in the long term.
From forced medical procedures to lack of personal protective equipment for health workers, violations of women’s, newborns’ and health workers’ rights are happening in the name of COVID-19. We provide advocacy tools to ensure respectful care for all.
Days for Girls increases access to menstrual care and education by developing global partnerships, cultivating social enterprises, mobilizing volunteers, and innovating sustainable solutions that shatter stigma and limitations associated with menstruation. This list of resources is specific for use during COVID-19 response.
Building on the overarching need for humanitarian actors to coordinate and plan to ensure that sexual and reproductive health is integrated into the pandemic preparedness and response, there are four prongs on how to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on mortality and morbidity due to sexual and reproductive health conditions in crisis and in fragile settings.
