Obstetric fistula is common in South Asia, UNFPA says

A young woman who endures prolonged, obstructed labour can develop a hole, or fistula, that allows constant leakage of urine or excrement, a condition that plagues hundreds of thousands of girls and women in South Asia, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said this week.

"The lack of good statistics indicates the nature of the problem," Dr. Nafis Sadik, UNFPA Special Ambassador on Fistula, said at a three-day South Asia Conference for the Prevention and Treatment of Fistula in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

"It affects the young, the poor, the young, the female. Fistula has no priority at all on national health policy agendas. We are here to change that."

Some 400,000 women are estimated to be living with the condition in Bangladesh alone and a total of 2 million women in Africa and South Asia. They are usually shunned by society.

The Government of Bangladesh announced that it would establish a centre of excellence in South Asia to train service providers and manage cases of fistula, which may be prevented by delaying the first pregnancy until age 20, or can be treated through surgery.