Ten women suffering from obstetric fistula, have successfully undergone reconstructive surgery at the Bolgatanga Hospital. Obstetric fistula, a severe medical condition, is a hole created between the vagina and anus or the bladder. It affects women who undergo difficult prolonged labour during delivery when the pressure of the baby tears some tissues and creates a hole that leaks urine or faeces thereby giving their victims a bad odour. The condition, which is said to be the most devastating of all child bearing problems, can get so bad that the women are shunned by their neighbours and sometimes divorced by their husbands and unable to do any activity that involves other people because nobody wants to get near them. Dr Peter Baffoe, a gynaecologist at the Bolgatanga Hospital, who performed the surgeries, said more than 100 such cases had been identified in the Upper East Region and about 30 operated upon with a success rate of 70 per cent. He said some of the cases were old conditions where the women had had the problems for more than 15 years, thus making it more difficult to correct successfully. Dr Baffoe said even though the treatment was covered under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the women were too poor to register. He said that most of the operations performed so far were sponsored by the United Nations Fund for Population Activity (UNFPA) and Pathfinder International-Ghana, an NGO that works to improve the reproductive health of women, men and adolescents throughout the developing world. The treatment for one woman cost at least GH¢250. The women were also presented with GH¢200 each by Pathfinder, which sponsored the operations to help them undertake small scale income generating activities that would facilitate their reintegration in their various communities. Mr Moses L. Nanang, Reproductive Programme Manager, Pathfinder, explained that the organisation trained staff of Ghana Health Service to reach out communities to identify women with fistula and encourage them to come for treatment. Source: Times