Uganda: Rise in Fistula Cases Overwhelm Specialists

By Staff Writer

Doctors have expressed worry over the high number of fistula cases in the country that has overstretched the available medics with special skills in repairing the disease.

Dr. Susan Obore, a fistula surgeon at Mulago Hospital, said a big number of women who develop obstetric fistula every year are not treated.

“At least 1900 women contract fistula every year. But we cannot repair these women in a year. At Mulago, the fistula ward, we repair about 300 cases in a year.  At least every regional referral hospital in the country has a surgeon to treat fistula. But we are not enough,” Dr. Obore said.

“Every year we carry forward scores of women with fistula because we can’t treat them. This is a challenge because even in the next year there are going to be fresh cases,” she said.

According to the 2011 Uganda health demographic survey, 2% of women in the reproductive age group (14-49 years) have a fistula. This means that there is an estimated 140,000 - 200,000 women Uganda with the problem compared to about 23 doctors as well as nurses and anesthetists with special skills in correcting the condition.

As a result, Obore said some women aged 60 years and above still live with fistula they contracted when they were young. 

On Monday June 16, TERREWODE, an association for the rehabilitation of women for development, donated three consignments containing gloves, catheters, and other medical equipment to the Mulago Fistula Ward.

The supplies will help to support the correction of fistula in about 200 patients, Obore said.

The government June 2014 allocated about sh800m in the national budget to treat fistulas.

In Uganda, it costs approximately sh700, 000 millions to treat the condition and therefore a lot of women can’t afford the treatment.

 

Obstetric fistula is a medical condition in which a hole develops between either the rectum or the vagina or between the bladder and vagina during a prolonged or obstructed labour, when adequate medical care is not available.

This results into constant leakage of urine or feaces against a woman’s will.

It [fistula] is considered a disease of poverty because of its tendency to occur in women in poor countries who do not have health resources comparable to developed nations, such as Africa.