From Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu,
Sekondi
Doctors and pharmacists at government and private heath facilities across the Western Region have expressed serious concern over the rate at which teenage girls aged between 10 and 19 are engaging in criminal abortion with the help of chemical sellers and quack abortion experts.
After going through such abortions unsuccessfully and at a point when enough harm has been done to their organs, the girls are then rushed to the hospitals.
The figures on criminal abortion for the first and second quarters of the year which are yet to be compiled have forced doctors to sound the warning that the reports from the 13 districts of the region are frightening.
According to available data at the Western Regional Health Directorate, Sekondi, as at the end of December 31, 2007 more than 14,139 teenagers aged between 10 and 19 got pregnant, out of which 2,280 attempted abortion and ended up at various health facilities with complications.
Sekondi-Takoradi, Nzema East, Ahanta West, Jomoro, Wassa West, Sefwi Wiawso, among others, accounted for the bulk of the cases of unsuccessful abortion by the teenagers.
Some were seriously affected by the concoctions and the overdose of the various drugs they took, including cycotec, a prescription drug-induced-ulcer medication introduced in the 1980s that could cause pregnant women to miscarry.
The unintended side effect of the drug has transformed the pill into an increasingly popular abortion medicine. Meanwhile, it should not be sold over the counter but it has found its way into chemical shops and individual retailers in the region.
According to a pharmacist, the kind of sickness the pill could cure is not here in Ghana and blamed the Pharmacy Council for not doing its work to find out what the drug was being used for to warrant its importation in such huge quantities.
What is more worrying to the health professionals are the ages of the girls involved and the fact that many of them are sent to the hospitals with incomplete abortion complications.
In the process of trying to save them, some lose their lives or have the pregnancy evacuated in a manner or process that could affect their chances of bearing children in the future.
The teenagers, who are mostly not aware of the implications of their actions, are mainly junior high school (JHS) students.
According to the doctors, if nothing was done immediately to arrest the situation, more lives would be lost.
The Western Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Sylvester Anemana, expressed worry about the situation and said the only solution at present was to strengthen education at the Adolescent Health Department of the directorate.
At the Obstetrics & Gynaecological Department of the Effia-Nkwanta Regional Hospital in Sekondi, Dr Sulley Ali Gabass said the situation had reached a stage where, if civil society organisations did not move in to educate the teenage girls on the effects of their actions on their lives, the nation and the drive towards girl-child education, would face a bleak future.
No comments:
Post a Comment