The Medical Director in charge of the Central regional hospital, Dr. Daniel Asare is alarmed at the rate at which teenagers are getting pregnant in that region. According to him, the number of teenagers - between the ages of 12-14 - who frequent the health facility for antenatal care, has increased to disturbing proportions. Statistics indicate that in 2012 alone, close to 14,000 teenagers in the Central region got pregnant. Joy News' Central regional correspondent Richard Kojo Nyarko reported Dr Asare as saying the above figure indicate a 62 per cent increase in teenage pregnancy rates in the region over previous years. Dr Asare therefore wondered why child rights advocates and other related state institutions seem to be quite over the matter even after widespread reports about the issue in the media. “Naturally speaking,” he noted, “these teenagers were defiled so why are the advocates…and the whole society quite…?” he quizzed, fearing the situation could degenerate if measures are not taken to control it. The medical director called on the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), the Children and Gender Ministry as well as civil society organizations to treat the issue with all the urgency required in order to ‘save the girl child’.