VVF: 12,000 girls risk losing their lives in Kaduna

AS of today, there are 12,230 cases of young girls with Vesico-Vaginal Fistula (VVF) in Kaduna State who are yet to be treated. This was even as there are still many unreported and unrecorded cases across the state. More worrisome is the fact that as pervasive as the problem is in the state, there is just one medical facility, the VVF Repair Centre located at Gambo Sawaba Hospital in Zaria, treating the problem.

According to the state Commissioner for Human Services and Social Development, Mrs. Hafsat Baba, the centre carries out repair surgeries on an average of 200 patients annually. However, according to Arewa Live findings, 477 teenage girls had undergone surgery in the last three years.

The question now is: How long will it take Kaduna State government to treat all the thousands of cases on the waiting list and how soon would the problem come under control.

According to Baba, the situation on ground does not provide immediate answers but what is required is to map out the right strategies that will yield positive results.

Speaking during the just-concluded conference on VVF held at Fifth Chukker Polo and Country Club in Kaduna, Mrs. Baba admitted that the state government had been incapable in its efforts at fighting the disease.

Part of the problem obviously is paucity of funds as, according to her, only about N50 million had been provided for VVF treatments in the 2020 budget which is a far cry from what the state needs. She, however, added that it was a modest attempt to at least tell the world that the state was committed to fighting the problem.

To this end, the commissioner said that society must support government efforts in changing the attitudes of men who enjoy having underage girls as brides or families who force their daughters into marriages. She added that society must also support government to improve access to healthcare.

The downside of all these, however, is that the over 12,000 young girls currently suffering from VVF in the state also risk losing their lives if they were not treated in time. With the rate of new VVF cases in the state, Mrs. Baba said it would take 100 years to treat all the present cases.

It was on this premise that the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) started the campaign with the state Ministry of Health and Fifth Chukker Polo and Country Club to organise a conference in Kaduna in order to find ways in tackling the menace.

According to the Deputy Regional Director of UNFPA, Mamadou Kante, the campaign on fistula started in 2002 in the country, saying the UN body is currently working in 50 other countries of the world where the cases are rampant.

Kante disclosed that since the campaign started in Nigeria, the UNFPA had provided support for over 10,000 fistula repair surgeries. According to him, the sum of N18 billion is needed to end the medical condition in the nearest future.

Explaining why the UNFP decided to support the state in its attempt to tackle the problem, he said that the increasing number of cases in the state as well as the burden associated with it had made it imperative to provide the necessary support to the state government, adding that the state government alone could not solve the problem.

What therefore is responsible for the increasing rate of fistula not only in Kaduna State, but also in other states? Arewa Live findings revealed that this could be attributed to religious and sociocultural factors.

In Northern Nigeria, It is a common practice to see young girls of between 10 and 13 years getting married to men old enough to be their fathers.

A resident, Mallam Yahuza, who said he was 50 years old when he got married to his wife who was just 13 years old then, however, believes that he has not committed any crime.

“Most of these girls don›t go to school. Their parents wait until they attain puberty and then marry them off. This is because once a girl attains puberty, one could notice her attitude towards men. They tend to get attracted and those who are more exposed become pregnant. Many of them end up having unwanted pregnancies. To avoid such occurrences, we get husbands for our teenage girls,” Yahuza said.

Another reason is most of the men in the north marry very young girls because Islam encourages early marriage. However, an Islamic cleric, Ustaz Usman, told Arewa Live that it is true girls are encouraged to settle down early but unfortunately, the practice is being exploited and abused by some men.

“When you marry a teenager, you have to wait to see that she is mature before subjecting her to motherhood,” he said, adding that “Islam encourages one to take care of his wife. Then why should a man abandon his wife once she has VVF?”

Narrating her ordeal during the conference, a VVF survivor who gave her name as Amina said she was married to her husband at 13 and became pregnant at 15. However, a few months into her pregnancy, she was diagnosed with VVF and taken to a primary health centre in her village.

Amina disclosed she was abandoned in the health facility by her husband. She had to beg for food, adding that while at the health facility, she was urinating uncontrollably without proper care and food. She was in this condition when a non-governmental organisation came to her rescue and took her to a better hospital.

According to her, when the child was taken from her womb, the odour that pervaded the surrounding was terrible as it was found out that the baby had not only died, but was rotting. This almost resulted in her death.

Speaking at the conference, the wife of the governor, Mrs Ummi el-Rufai, appealed to parents and guardians to enroll their children and wards in school instead of forcing them into early marriage. Mrs el-Rufai disclosed that a situation where over 10,000 girls are exposed to such conditions speaks volumes of such society.

She told the organisers that she was ready to support the cause with her financial resources, energy and whatever she had to ensure that the teenage girls have better life.

Also speaking, the state governor, Nasir el-Rufai, called on individuals, corporate bodies as well as banks to assist in addressing the menace, adding that efforts had been put in place by his administration to end the menace.

Stakeholders at the conference also called on the the state House of Assembly to enact laws that will protect the rights of girl-child and women.

Speaking in the same vein, a medical personnel, Dr Sadiya Nasir, noted that lack of effective usage of the laws had been an impediment to ending VVF in the region, saying “there should be a law which makes it an offence to marry a girl of nine or 10 years.”