Increasing Fistula cases worry Health Ministry

Ministry of Health officials have expressed  concern over the increasing number of women with fistula.

According to Dr.Ronnie Bahatungire, a  commissioner in the ministry of health, currently the ministry 's records show  1900 woman  are suffering from the illness while about 100,000  at a risk of becoming victims.

He attributed the increasing numbers to girls who are getting pregnancies at a teenage age and develop  complications during birth.

Bahatungire said that, teenagers gets the illness because their private bodies are not fully developed as mothers and hence becomes vulnerable during birth period because out of the numbers, only 1% of the normal reproductive age of mothers are victims of the disease.

He made the remarks while representing the state minister for health Hanifa Kawooya during the national celebration to end fistula disease at Namayingo district headquarters.

Bahatungire asked all stake holders and parents to prevent  their daughters from becoming pregnant at an early age and marrying them when they are still young.

He also partly attributed the cause to pregnant mothers who delay to seek antenatal care at hospitals and those who go for delivery at traditional birth attendants.

The first deputy prime minister also the minister for East African affairs Rebecca Kadaga who was represented by the state minister for housing Persis Namuganza tasked government to increase funding to the ministry of health .

She said that when the ministry is well funded, it will come up with several interventions to fight the diseases in form  of sensitization.

Doris Ajok,the executive director  for Amref health Africa promised to continue supporting the victims of fistula to access medical care and sensitizing the community.

Ajok said that they started intervention in 2005 through their programs of heroes and Fistula program where they have treated a number of victims who had failed to access medical care due to high expenses in various health centres.

Janet Munguntye and Sunday Ozera ,some  of the survivors of the disease from Nebbi district who attended the celebrations explained the  challenges they went through with the diseases as they had no money for medication.

Mungutye said she developed the illness in 2017 due to negligence by health workers at the hospital when she went for the delivery while Ozera developed the complication in 2012 as a result of the baby who died in the stomach.

They said that they were operated last year by the help of Amref organization after failing to meet the hospital expenses for years.

They noted some of the challenges they have gone through including stigmatization by spouses, parents and community .

They hailed the organization for coming to their rescue and asked others victims to come out and seek for support since many suffer silently as they fear to reveal their status