Ashanti region records an increase in teenage pregnancy last year

Kumasi, Mar.2, GNA- Teenage pregnancy in the Ashanti region rose from 16,730 in 2002, to 18,027 last year, Dr Kofi Asare, Ashanti Regional Director of Health Services has announced.

He said the increase in teenage pregnancy in the region should be a source of great worry to all organisations and individuals in the country, and for that matter more pragmatic measures and strategies need to be adopted now to curb the trend.

Dr Asare made the announcement when he presented a report on the state of the health in the region, at the 2003 Annual Performance Review meeting of the Ashanti Regional Health Directorate held in Kumasi on Tuesday.

The four-day review meeting is being attended by all the District Directors of Health Services and various health personnel in the Ashanti region, and will assess performance of the Service in the region for last year, and also map out more positive strategies for better health results this year.

Dr Asare suggested that as part of strategies to help check the scare of the teenage pregnancy, there was the need to establish facilities known as, menstrual Regulation clinics to help young teenage girls to be abreast with their menstrual cycle and know when to actually have safe sex.

This apart, family planning education and services too should no longer be limited to only the adult women, but also extended to cover young and teenage girls as well, he said.

On maternal deaths for last year, he said the region recorded 173 deaths.

He could however not readily give the figures of pregnant women who lost their lives for the year 2002.

The Regional Director attributed the maternal deaths mainly to abortion, hypertension and anaemia (bleeding).

Dr Asare disclosed that malaria, diarrhoea and Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI) were also reported in hospitals for last year in the Ashanti region.

He noted that such diseases were a result of poor environmental practices, which in any case could be averted if the appropriate authorities committed themselves to ensuring that the environment was always kept clean and devoid of filth and garbage.

Mrs Mercy Bonsu, Ashanti Regional Deputy Director of Nursing Services, entreated health staff to continue to work assiduously and as a team, in spite of the constraints to help bring quality health care to the doorsteps of people in the region.