UNFPA
Nigeria has highest global incidence of obstetric fistula of 800,000 – UNFPA
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said Nigeria is the world’s with the highest incidence of obstetric fistula of 800,000 cases.
The Adamawa State Coordinator of UNFPA, Dr Danladi Idrisa, said at an event in Yola Thursday that prevalence of early marriage which forces underage girls into pregnancy often result in complications following deliveries that cause the vaginal fistula.
Danladi said the disease results from obstructed delivery with over 800,000 cases, most of them in the northern part of the country.
He spoke during the graduation ceremony of 50 fistula survivors at the Women Development Centre, Yola, where the survivors who had been trained on different trades were given business startup kits.
Danladi said, “Women get fistula when the bladder ruptures during childbirth. It is prevalent in the northern part of the country because of child marriages, lack of antenatal care, and giving birth at home.
“These women have faced a terrible psychological trauma because most are isolated by their own people and livelihood becomes a challenge. These women smell. They have problems in their marriages.”
Danladi said UNFPA, in conjunction with the Fistula Foundation and the state Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development had conducted surgical repair of about 265 fistula patients since 2015, said the best approach to fistula complications is prevention, urging parents to desist from marrying out their daughters before they come of age.
Danladi said certain fistula conditions cannot be rectified in Adamawa State because the right facilities do not exist.