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WEST AFRICA: Cross-border FGM on the rise

Cross-border female genital mutilation / cutting (FGM/C) is on the rise in West Africa according to the UN, spurring the need to impose a region-wide law banning the practice, say experts. Experts from the region met this week to discuss how to eliminate FGM/C across West Africa, at a conference sponsored by the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in the Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou. A study sponsored by UNIFEM to be released in late October 2008 said  circumcisers or girls who undergo...

AFRICA: Cervical cancer vaults to WHO priority list

With cervical cancer cases rising across Sub-Saharan Africa, and 80 percent of women diagnosed too late to stop the cancer’s deadly spread, the World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending screening and vaccination programmes throughout the region. “WHO is going to strongly advocate with donors and decision-makers to list cervical cancer as a public health priority…because with a vaccine we can save lives by preventing cervical cancer.” said Jean Gabriel Wango, head of family health at WHO...

BURKINA FASO: Fistula in Sahel region highlighted

Doctors in Burkina Faso say fistula is being under-reported, and are launching a new project to offer free surgery to some of the affected women. According to the government’s statistics, there were just 54 cases of fistula in Burkina Faso in 2007. But Aboubakar Coulibaly, a doctor in the national health system, said “Cases are being under-reported.” The main causes of fistula are men raping and impregnating very young children, and prolonged obstructed labour, usually because women and...

BURKINA FASO: Meningitis epidemics in vaccinated areas

People vaccinated against meningitis are supposed to have protection for three years but health officials have announced that meningitis epidemics have occurred in several areas where populations had recently been immunized. “[Health researchers] are currently collecting information so as to identify the factors explaining the recurrence of the epidemic in districts where populations have been vaccinated”, Ousmane Badolo, head of the epidemiologic surveillance department at the ministry of...

BURKINA FASO: Too many women dying in childbirth

The United Nations Population Fund has launched a campaign in Burkina Faso to drastically reduce maternal mortality by promoting assisted delivery and prenatal consultations. The campaign aims to reach 80 percent of women at the age to procreate in rural areas, and 50 percent in the cities. In Burkina Faso, according to the Ministry of Health, just 63 percent of women see a doctor while they are pregnant, of whom only 23 percent do so regularly. Burkina Faso has one of the highest...