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.

Dr Wilfred Ochan (sixth from left) with Mr Martin Adu-Owusu (fourth from right) and staff of UNFPA and NTC after the meeting Photo: Okai Elizabeth

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. We need to mobilise the population through awareness and mobilisation to get to these facilities so that we can clear the backlog of women we have with the condition and then by 2030, we can say that Ghana is free of fistula,” the Country Representative said.

Defined as a debilitating childbirth injury that causes uncontrolled leakage of urine or feaces in the hole between the birth canal and the bladder or rectum of the woman, OF usually occurs as a result of prolonged or obstructed labour without timely medical intervention.

The consequences are devastating; chronic incontinence, stigma, social exclusion, and in many cases, the death of the baby.

Dr Ochan said in commemoration of IDEOF, the UNFPA was engaging four health facilities including the Komfo Anokye and Cape Coast Teaching hospitals to con­duct OF surgeries as part of efforts to clear the backlog of cases.

“Why should a woman suffer lifelong consequences simply for trying to give life? Why should we leave these women to suffer through no fault of theirs when they were just trying to give life?

It is high time we mobilise efforts to repair these conditions, restore dignity and reinte­grate them back to society,” he urged.

The Managing Director of the NTC, Mr Martin Adu-Owusu, assured the UNFPA delegation of the Corporation’s support in its activities, especially in the area of information dissemination and public sensiti­sation.

“We are ready to collaborate with you to ensure that maternal deaths and issues affecting women come down to the barest minimum so that together we can achieve the UN goal to eliminating OF by 2030,” he said.

The Acting Editor of The Ghanaian Times, Alhaji Salifu Abdul-Rahaman, called on the UNFPA to strengthen its efforts in building the capacity of the youth to contrib­ute meaningfully to national development.

He assured the delegation of the paper’s commitment to high journalistic standards and pledged support to UNFPA’s activities to promote women and youth development.