DKT International launched 56 new products in 31 countries in 2024. In Nicaragua, they recorded their first sales of mifepristone (the first in history). DKT Latin America North is also selling condoms, IUDs, and manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) kits in Nicaragua. They also began selling mifepristone in Guatemala and misoprostol in the Dominican Republic.
In April, DKT’s US-based affiliate carafem expanded its telehealth abortion services into New York state, and in November into Michigan, increasing access to critical abortion care in the Midwest.
The DKT team in the Democratic Republic of Congo published a white paper detailing how DKT has had a positive impact on the number of safe abortions in the country, and has trained healthcare providers in medical abortion pill provision and has distributed combipacks throughout the country. Specifically, they scaled-up access to the combipacks in the province of Haut-Katanga, covering 125 facilities in four health zones in the cities of Lubumbashi, Kambove, Likasi and Kipushi. Selected providers from both the public and private sectors were also trained in the management of abortions and possible complications (haemorrhages, infections, intra-abdominal lesions, etc.) and the correct use of the combipack.
Carafem also co-authored an exploratory study with Ibis International on introducing telehealth medical abortion as an option for expanding abortion access in the USA. The study compared the accessibility and convenience of obtaining and using two no-test, direct-to-patient regimens ̶ mifepristone and misoprostol and misoprostol-only. The study was important in that if access to mifepristone ends up being restricted in the USA, there will be information on the safety and acceptability of misoprostol-only abortions, which has not previously been studied in the US. This study had only a very small number of misoprostol-only users because the women could choose which regimen they preferred and only 11 chose miso-only, but it was an important indicator that the regimen was well accepted. (BMJ Public Health, Vol.2, Issue 2, October 2024).
SOURCE: DKT’s Best of 2024 Newsletter, 16 December 2024.