New from CDC
Celebrating Women's Health Week!
National Women’s Health Week starts each year on Mother’s Day to encourage women and girls to make their health a priority. Learn more about how to live a safer and healthier life!
Factors Associated with Use of HIV Prevention and Health Care Among Transgender Women — Seven Urban Areas, 2019–2020
Transgender women are disproportionately affected by HIV. Ensuring access to basic needs, such as housing, food, and income, and providing gender-affirming health care could improve access to and use of HIV prevention and treatment services by transgender women.
CDC LOCATe: Discrepancies Between Self-Reported Level of Maternal Care and LOCATe-assessed Level of Maternal Care Among 463 Birth Facilities
Two in five facilities self-report a level of maternal care (LoMC) higher than their LOCATe®-assessed LoMC, indicating discrepancies between perceived maternal care capabilities and those recommended in current LoMC guidelines. Results highlight an opportunity for states to engage with facilities, health systems, and other stakeholders about LoMC and collaborate to strengthen systems for improving maternal care delivery.
Context Matters: Strategies to Improve Maternal and Newborn Health Services in Sub-Saharan Africa
Identifying context-appropriate features to maximize the effectiveness of maternal and newborn health interventions in sub-Saharan Africa is a prerequisite to successful programs.
Malignant Mesothelioma Mortality in Women - United States, 1999-2020
To characterize deaths associated with mesothelioma and temporal trends in mesothelioma mortality among women in the United States, CDC analyzed annual Multiple Cause of Death records. The largest number of deaths was associated with the health care and social assistance industry (89; 15.7%) and homemaker occupation (129; 22.8%). Maintenance of efforts to limit exposure to asbestos, fibers, including among women should receive consideration.
Seven years later: State Neonatal Risk-Appropriate Care Policy Consistency with the 2012 American Academy of Pediatrics Policy
States improved consistency of policy language by each level of care, though half of states still need policy to provide minimum standards of care to the most vulnerable infants.
Improving Maternal and Reproductive Health in Kigoma, Tanzania: A 13-Year Initiative
The program in Kigoma demonstrates that decentralizing high-quality maternal and reproductive health services in remote, low-resource settings is both feasible and effective and could be considered in places with similar contexts. By embedding the program in the existing health system, and through efforts to build local capacity, the improvements seen in Kigoma may be sustained.
A Comprehensive Approach to Improving Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care in Kigoma, Tanzania
Decentralizing high-quality comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care (EmONC) delivered mostly by associate clinicians and nurses led to significant improvements in the availability and utilization of lifesaving care at birth in Kigoma. Dedicated efforts to sustain high-quality EmONC along with supplemental programmatic components contributed to the reduction of maternal and perinatal mortality.
Survey of Incidence, Lifetime Prevalence, and Treatment of Self-reported Vulvovaginal Candidiasis, United States, 2020
Vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) remains a common infection in the United States. This analysis supports known clinical risk factors for VVC and suggests that antifungal treatment use is high, underscoring the need to ensure appropriate diagnosis and treatment.
Arsenic in Private Well Water and Birth Outcomes in the United States
In this largest epidemiologic study of arsenic and birth outcomes to date, authors did not observe associations of modeled arsenic estimates in private wells with gestational age and found modest inverse associations with term birth weight.
COVID-19 Impact on Women
Changes in Rates of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study in the United States, 2019-2020
The authors examined differences in pregnancy outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the previous year. Among 663,620 deliveries occurring in 2019 and 614,093 deliveries occurring in 2020, authors observed an increase in in-hospital maternal death from 2019 to 2020, which was no longer statistically significant after excluding deliveries with a COVID-19 diagnosis.
Post-Authorization Surveillance of Adverse Events Following COVID-19 Vaccines in Pregnant Persons in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), December 2020 - October 2021
Review of reports to Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System following COVID-19 vaccines in pregnant persons did not identify any concerning patterns of maternal or infant-fetal outcomes.
Snapshots
