WOMEN’s pressure group, Culture Shock Trust, has expressed concern over the increasing number of females awaiting fistula operations in Zimbabwe amid reports that Chinhoyi General Hospital had over 500 women registered to undergo obstetric fistula operation.
by VENERANDA LANGA
Culture Shock Trust director Nqobile Munzara said the high prevalence of child marriages was a major cause of the health complication, adding that although the Constitutional Court outlawed child marriages and struck off Section 22 (1) of the Marriages Act early this year, the practice was worryingly prevalent in some parts of the country.
An obstetric fistula is a hole between the female reproductive organ and rectum or bladder that is caused by prolonged obstructed labour, leaving a woman failing to control faecal or urine excreta.
She said the only way to end obstetric fistula was to keep girls in school longer and to educate women that it could be treated.
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About two million young women were believed to be living with untreated obstetric fistula in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. If left untreated, fistula could lead to frequent ulcerations and infections of the kidney, with victims usually dumped by their spouses.