Young adolescent boys and girls in Ghana continue to lag behind in accessing information regarding their sexuality regarding Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs).
It is even more worrying especially with insufficient provision of information on Reproductive health rights to improve their health and wellbeing.
Status
Adolescent young women and men form the larger segment of the Ghanaian population with most of them sexually active with high incidences of teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
Reports of national STDs rates in Ghana have been “estimated at 3.4 percent of the population with high prevalence as high as 28 per cent among symptomatic individuals “.
Ghana Health Service Demographic survey and “Globally prevalence of STIs increasing with approximately one million new STIs infections every day.
Before the 2022 Ghana Demographic health survey the report indicated that two per cent of women age 15-49 had sex with more than one partner in 12 months and of these women 12 per cent reported using condom during their last intercourse.
Fifteen per cent of men age 15 -49 had sex with more than one partner in one year and among these men 18 per cent used condom.
To this end, many adolescent youth are parading without the requisite information hence carrying any and spreading sexually transmitted Infections is high with its negative impact on future young generation which require faster interventions to control since they themselves have no idea that as sexually active youth, the spread of HIV /AID in the country, including STIs such as gonorrhea, Syphilis, Pelvic inflammation, Chlamydia is a bother.
Dr Michael Wombeongo , a medical Professional in an interview with the Ghana said Sexual and reproductive Health issues related to young people in the whole of the northern part of Ghana “you realize that traditional understanding of family planning is completely different from the way health workers advocate for it “.
He said the reason was either health workers are failing to understand and link the health advocacy to the traditional understanding of the people or people do not get it all when it comes to family planning which is key reasons why young people are running away from contraceptives or family planning utilization in the North East Region in particular, where the Participatory (PARDA) a non- governmental Organization is operating.
CHALLENGES
Myths surrounding contraceptives
The youth have the understanding that using contraceptives means they may not give birth again at the time they need children.
They also claim the use of the male condom does not give them pleasure, an area that needs a lot of education.
According to Dr Wombeogo who is also the Executive Director of PARDA, it is not everybody that was privy to receiving family planting and contraceptive information thereby allowing the youth to engage in myths.
While the education sectors do not allow health workers to come in with family contraceptives to talk to students, choices are limited because contraceptives are not readily available, they do not have the resources to acquire contraceptives.
To this end, many adolescent youth are parading without the knowledge of carrying around with sexually transmitted Infections and because of their sexually activeness, they spread more of gonorrhea, Syphilis, Pelvic inflammation, Chlamydia, herpes and more.
“Some spread through biological factors; born through their mothers during pregnancy and childbirth, because of low awareness and limited access to sexual and reproductive health information and services.
Health survey
In a Health Survey on health seeking behaviours of young women with sexually transmitted infections, by Aaron Asibi Abuosi etal women participants of the survey who sought treatment for STIs 26% sought treatment at a public hospital/polyclinic, 34% sought treatment at a chemical/drug store and 10% self-medicated and seeking treatment for STIs was significantly associated with older age and those of higher socio-economic and educational status.
THE STIGMA
Young people feel stigmatized as promiscuous anytime they visit family planning facilities.
Stigma associated with STDs which result in people not seeking medical treatment or fail to tell their people the presence of STDS to spouses or casual partners
CONSEQUENCES
Mr Rayal Issahaku Physician Assistant of the Tinguri health center in an interaction with the GNA said untreated STIs could lead to major complications, including HIV, congenital infections, infertility, permanent disability and mortality.
Communication related to culture and Interventions to empower parents to communicate with their young children about sexual partners is important and also the cultural belief that push widows to re-marry from the same family particularly to brothers of the deceased should be reconsidered to curtail spread of sexually transmitted diseases
OVER THE COUNTER MEDICATIONS AND TREATMENT
Mr Issahaku also noted the increasing number of reported cases of Chlamydia in some health centers and added that though family planning services were available at the facility there were low patronage.
He also advised against Over- the Counter- patronage of .medicines for treatment of STIs as the treatment may not be effective and may be dangerous since one person could have more than one infection and therefore doing self -medication one may not be useful.
He added that some clients seek medical attention with STIs when the situation was becoming complicated and widespread.
INTERVENTIONS
The fundamental human rights that encompass issues related to access to information and services such as family planning , maternal health care and prevention and treatment of STDs cannot be over emphasized.
To this extend, OXFAM Ghana through its partners under the Project Power to choose (P2C) project which is a seven-year Global Affairs Canada funded project with the objective of influencing increased access to reproductive health information and services for Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AG&YW) between the ages of 10 – 24 years by 2028 and implemented in 5 regions (Northern, North-East, Bono East, Central and Greater Accra regions) and 7 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies.
Though the Government is a signatory to many international, Sub Regional and National treaties and policies there is still a gap that needs to be filled especially including increasing knowledge of adolescent youth and young women on sex education in schools and improving patronage and utilization of health centers offering such services and providing youth friendly centers for young people.
PARDA, a local Non- governmental health Organization is implementing the Power to choose (P2C) project in the North East Region where the GNA has been interacting with stakeholders and youth.
Dr Wombeongo said the stop-gap PARDA had adopted in the North East Region was to empower the adolescent young people with information and guidelines and to disabuse their minds of the myths to overcome stigmatization
Young people should make decisions for themselves and ensure the health workers reached them at their informal sectors especially youth friendly corners to make their own choices and decisions.
He said through the intervention through support of Oxfam previous high rates of teenage pregnancies among young girls had significantly reduced in the North East Region.
The Target 3.7 of the sustainable goals calls on countries by 2030 to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health care services including family planning, information and education and integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes.
Living up to the commitment of the International community to achieve universal access to reproductive health by 2030.
A GNA feature Fatima Anafu-Astagna