450k teen pregnancies recorded in 3 years

Eighty thousand teen pregnancies were recorded between 2013 and 2016 in the Ashanti Region with 51 deaths during the same period.

National figures also showed that over 450,000 teen pregnancies were recorded from 2013 to 2016 with 311 associated deaths.

In June this year, 57,000 teen pregnancies were recorded with 31 associated deaths nationwide.

This was revealed at the maiden edition of the 2017 Adolescent Health Ambassadors Camp in Kumasi, in the Ashanti Region.

The event, which was a collaboration between the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Ghana Education Service (GES) was on the theme "Equipping young people as health ambassadors for sustainable development”.

It was aimed at educating adolescents from Senior High Schools across the country on their sexual and reproductive needs.

Deputy Director General of the GHS, Dr Gloria J. Quansah Asare said a lot is being done to equip adolescents with the needed sexual and reproductive knowledge.

According to her, the number of Adolescent Health Clubs has increased from 12 when the implementation began in 2014 to 105 through the collaborative efforts of the GHS and the School Health Education Programme (SHEP) of the GES.

She said the strategic partnership will be strengthened further as stakeholders work towards a nationwide scale-up.

Dr Asare maintained that the initiative was unique because, a trained health service provider is assigned as a mentor to serve as a link between the school and the public health facilities within its environs. The mentor is to complement the efforts of the teachers in the provision of comprehensive sex education.

The Deputy Director also announced that the GHS has equipped 721 health facilities and trained over a thousand service providers in adolescent and youth-friendly health services with support from its partners.

A representative from SHEP of the GES, Nana Esi Inkoom indicated that the initiative was important for students since it was a platform to give them the requisite reproductive training.

The event also saw the launch of the Adolescent Health Mobile application-‘YMK-App” that seeks to address issues with access, privacy and confidentiality in the provision of health information and services.