UNFPA Initiative Raises Awareness of Fistula Cases in Sudan

“Yes for Prevention. No for discrimination” was the slogan of this year’s AIDS Day commemoration by UNFPA in Sudan. The event, in early December 2003, included public awareness and fund-raising campaigns and culminated in a much-publicized football match between Khartoum’s two most popular teams. Sudan’s HIV infection rate is estimated at 1.6 per cent nationwide.

UNFPA used part of the proceeds of the AIDS Day football match to buy medical equipment and medicines for Dr. Abbo’s Fistula Centre in Khartoum – the country’s only such facility. Lack of appropriate medical services and skilled providers, along with widespread ignorance of the consequences of fistula and of the possibility of repairing it, are taking a toll on Sudanese women. Between 1994 and 2000, the centre treated more than 700 women who suffered from this condition, the most devastating of all pregnancy-related disabilities.

Eight volunteer doctors manage the centre. With just one operating room and a chronic shortage of medical equipment, they can treat only one patient per day. Given the two weeks required for the post-operational recovery and the shortage of beds, many patients have to wait for up to three months to be treated, sometimes sharing beds with others.

In an effort to increase awareness of this condition, UNFPA organized a recent visit to the centre for a number of interested stakeholders. Participants included representatives of the Government and other United Nations agencies, as well as Andrea Reichlin, the Swiss Ambassador, and Claire Becker, the Humanitarian Attaché of the French Embassy.

Describing fistula as “one of the major health issues in Sudan,” Dr. Abbo, the centre’s founder and an expert in treating fistula, said that he and his colleagues had been “working hard since 1987 to equip a centre in the Khartoum Hospital and we have been supported by UNFPA, and now by the Government.”

“We have achieved so much,” added Dr. Abbo, “but we always need help to heal more women from Sudan and other neighbouring countries and build new facilities to offer fistula treatment.”

Nimal Hettiaratchy, UNFPA Representative in Sudan, committed to further support Dr. Abbo’s Fistula Centre with essential training and equipment. He also underscored the need to expand fistula treatment beyond the capital, particularly to Western Sudan, where the rate of fistula-affected young women is particularly high.