|
|
AFRICA: Pregnancy Illness Devastates 100,000 Women Yearly
By Haider Rizvi
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 19, 2003 (IPS) - Alarmed by a new study that found millions of African women continue to suffer and even die from the pregnancy-related condition fistula, U.N. officials and public health activists are asking rich nations for help in setting up treatment facilities on the continent.
The study released by the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) and EngenderHealth, a reproductive health group working in more than 80 countries worldwide, calls fistula ''the most devastating'' of all pregnancy-related disabilities, affecting about 100,000 women in sub-Saharan Africa every year.
Experts say reconstructive surgery can treat the wound, caused by prolonged obstructed labour, but in most cases women are either unaware or have no access to treatment. The surgery costs from 100 to 400 dollars, an amount that most women in Africa cannot afford.
''It is a violation of women's right to life,'' says UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Obaid, at the release of the study here. ''Most women living with fistula today suffer in silence, unaware that a simple cure is available. One woman told me, 'it's better to be blind than having fistula'. These women deserve our immediate attention.''
Medical experts say the condition leaves women in pain, constantly leaking urine and faeces.
''The prolonged pressure of the baby's head against the mother's pelvis cuts off the blood supply to the soft tissues surrounding her bladder, rectum and vagina,'' explains Dr. France Donnay, a gynaecologist who works with UNFPA. ''The injured tissues soon rot away, leaving a hole (fistula). If the hole is between the woman's vagina or bladder, she loses control over her urination, and if it is between her vagina and rectum, she loses control of her bowels.''
UNFPA and EngenderHealth researchers say they went to more than 30 hospitals in Mozambique, Benin, Chad, Mali, Malawi, Niger, Uganda, Zambia and Nigeria to see how fistula patients were being treated. They found almost all of the hospitals lacking doctors as well as surgical equipment.
''I see pain. I see women suffering. In Mozambique, there are only three doctors for fistula surgery for over 19 million people,'' says Dr. Joseph Ruminjo, co-author of the study, who spent six month in the region treating several women and observing their condition.
Ruminjo and others say the situation in many other African countries is similar. In the 1980s, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated two million women were living with fistula, but UNFPA say these figures are too low because they are based on patients who seek treatment in medical facilities. In Nigeria alone, there could be as many as one million women living with fistula, they estimate.
''Women with fistula are living indicators of failed health systems,'' says Dr. Amy Pollack, president of EngenderHealth. ''Almost all women who develop fistula attempt to deliver their babies at home without skilled medical care. Thy live in labour for many days and the baby usually dies. No one is there to help them.''
The UNFPA study, 'Obstetric Fistula Needs Assessment: Findings from Nine African Countries' shows that many women with fistula are treated as social outcasts. They are forced out of homes by their husbands, abandoned by other family members and even disdained by health workers, who often consider them ''unclean''.
Researchers say that without skills to earn a living, some women have no choice but to turn to sex work to survive. Women living with fistula in sub-Saharan Africa are often 13 to 20 years old, illiterate and poor, says the report.
It was not unusual for women in northern countries to also suffer from fistula, until 1855 when surgical treatment was invented.
Though critical of governments in the region for failing to devise a strategy to cure women living with the condition, some researchers acknowledge that governments are becoming concerned, but they lack resources.
UNFPA says it plans to spend 500,000 dollars to help women receive fistula treatment in six countries, including Bangladesh. ''That's why we have released this report. It's to ring a global alarm,'' said Obaid.
Last year, the agency lost its funding from the United States, which accused the UNFPA of using Washington's funds to promote abortions in the guise of reproductive health rights. The agency denied the charges.
A fundraising campaign led by individual U.S. citizens has since raised one million dollars for the UNFPA.
(END)
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
What is RSS?
