80pc of fistula victims are illiterate and semi-illiterate women, reveals CCBRT

Dar es Salaam. About 80 per cent of fistula victims are women whose education levels do not exceed primary school level, CCBRT has revealed.

Again, 35 per cent of them are non-educated women according to Brenda Msangi, CCBRT boss.

"CCBRT has managed to treat 7,000 women with fistula in 16 years until this year. About 80 per cent of them are those with primary education while 35 per cent did not go to school," she told a press conference on Wednesday, May 22.

According to her, the hospital (CCBRT) has the capacity to host 72 fistula patients at once.

"We have two fistula wards with 72 bed capacity. Treatments of fistula take an average of three to four weeks," she said.

She added that, most of fistula victims come from Rukwa, Mbeya, Arusha, Kigoma and other lake zone regions.

Speaking during the conference, a fistula specialist doctor from CCBRT Dr James Chapa said that people with no basic education background contact fistula easily due to lack of awareness.

"Most illiterate women don’t care much about maternal health when they are pregnant," he said.

He added that, the uneducated women also have bad traditional myths about fistula and other maternal health care.

For her part, Ms Felister Bwana, a programme specialist Health System at UNFPA said that the problem of fistula is still high in the country and the universe.

According to her, about two million women currently live with fistula worldwide, adding that there are about 100,000 new cases each year globally.

"For Tanzania alone, about 1,200 to 3,700 are getting fistula every year," she said.