More than 12,000 Ghanaian women currently live with obstetric fistula (OF) due to the country's limited surgical capacity to treat them, the Country Representative, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr Wilfred Ochan, has said.
Despite an estimated 1,300 women developing the condition in Ghana annually, only 40 per cent were treated, leaving a majority of survivors to suffer in silence and self-isolation.
Speaking during a courtesy call on management of the New Times Corporation, publishers of The Ghanaian Times and The Spectator to mark International Day to End Obstetric Fistula (IDEOF) yesterday, Dr Ochan called for increased investment, awareness, and partnership, particularly with the private sector, to accelerate action in tackling the threat. "From 2014 to now, we should have generated up to 13,000 cases of fistula, and if you take the upper limit, over the last 10 years, we have been able to repair just 1,000 cases, so we have a backlog of about 12,000 women living with this preventable and treatable condition.
The intention is to do at least 2,000 repairs each year, and that means we need many hospitals with the capacity to do such surgeries.
