Provision of medical abortion by midlevel healthcare providers in Kyrgyzstan: testing an intervention to expand safe abortion services to underserved rural and periurban areas.

Objective: To demonstrate the feasibility and safety of training midlevel healthcare providers (midwives and family nurses) to provide medical abortion and postabortion contraception in underserved areas in Kyrgyzstan.

Study Design: This was an implementation study at four referral facilities and 28 Felsher Obstetric Points in two districts to train their midwives and family nurses to deliver safe and effective abortion care with co-packaged mifepristone-misoprostol and provide contraceptives postabortion. The outcome of abortion - complete abortion, incomplete abortion or o-going pregnancy - was the primary end point measured.

[The burden of disease from cancer in Cuba, 1990-2002].

Objective: To describe the burden of disease, using morbidity and mortality in Cuba from 1990-2002, by cancer type and location.

Methods: A descriptive study of the disease burden in the years 1990, 1995, 2000, and 2002, by Cuba's most frequently associated cancer types and locations. Official Cuban sources were used to calculate years of potential life lost (YPLL) due to mortality (based on life expectancy) and morbidity (based on the incidence, average duration, and severity of the disease), as well as years of potential life lost per death (YPLL/D) and the disability-adjusted life years (DALY), for each cancer type and location, by sex and age group.