VVF: Some patients tell sad tales, others tell sweet stories

Presently, Adamawa State, a North Eastern state in Nigeria has about 2,000 women suffering from the Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF). Most of the victims have touchy stories about the endless embarrassments and harassments they have encountered in various matrimonial homes as a consequence of this scourge.Weekly Trust investigations in this and other states show that […]

Presently, Adamawa State, a North Eastern state in Nigeria has about 2,000 women suffering from the Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF). Most of the victims have touchy stories about the endless embarrassments and harassments they have encountered in various matrimonial homes as a consequence of this scourge.
Weekly Trust investigations in this and other states show that majority of the victims are women who live in rural areas, with little or no access to medicare.  As a result, some had even resigned to fate, as they are constrained by lack of finance to seek the specialized treatment for the ailment.
Weekly Trust’s recent checks at the Yola Specialist Hospital, where some patients converged for   free medical treatment, revealed sad tales of child-mothers kicked out of matrimonial homes because of VVF by angry husbands. The plight of these VVF victims is compounded by misguided superstitious beliefs in some quarters that they could possibly be under the spell of a curse   and so, paying for their sins.
A 35-year-old mother of two, Malama Kaltume, said she contacted VVF after the birth of her second child and suddenly noticed that she could no longer control her urine.
“It was after I gave birth to my second child that I noticed that I could no longer control my urine.  I would wet my bed with urine and this usually makes me to smell. The situation was actually very embarrassing to me and my husband,” Kaltume lamented.
In spite of the trauma, she was grateful to her husband for caring and showing her compassion as well as bringing her to the hospital for treatment. She implored other women with similar predicaments as well as husbands to assist their wives seek medical attention.
Kaltume adds, “I feel if a man really loves you, he should stand by you in all situations, whether good or bad, but there is no guarantee that he will stand by his wife if something bad happens to her again.”
Adamawa State Commissioner for Health, Barr Lillian Steven submits to the incapacity of the state to effectively carter for mass number of VVF, since it is a disease that requires specialized training by medical personnel.
She stresses that   “treating VVF is time consuming as the disease is often complicated, which means only few sufferers can be attended to in a week or month and provided a patient does not to suffer a relapse.”
However, Ebony State has established a VVF special center to deal with the scourge. At the National Obstetrics Fistula Centre, Abakaliki, the state capital, Dr. Henry Uro-Chukwu told Weekly Trust establishing the center the state’s first lady’s idea.
“We discovered that these people (the patients) had no money in the first place and that is why they have never gone to good hospitals. Now telling them to pay N150,000 for a surgery as required, was a big challenge because they hardly can afford transport money to the centre. So, the surgery has to be free; and somebody has to pay for those deprived people.
“We have traffic of people who throng the center, when they heard that the centre is here in Abakaliki. They started coming from Abia, Enugu, Imo, Cross River, Akwa Ibom and  Lagos States. They came from all the places.
Weekly Trust learnt that   Ebonyi State First Lady Mrs. Josephine Elechi has warned against the discrimination   of the VVF victims. “Let us accommodate them; let us give free medical services to everybody. In fact, that was how on the last count, over 21 states from different parts of Nigeria benefited from this programmme,” she said.
Some benefitting patients of the Ebonyi State VVF center  like  Mrs. Blessing Agu, (Enugu State); Mrs. Odiwomma Okereafor (Imo State), and Mrs. Abugu Precilia (Enugu),   could  not contain their joy, while speaking  with   Weekly  Trust. They   expressed gratitude to both Governor Martins Elechi and his wife, Josephine for setting up the centre and they called on other states to emulate them.
Mrs.   Blessing, a native of Udi LGA  of Enugu State  told Weekly Trust that “the problem that brought me here is the VVF. After I was operated upon to remove a fibroid; the VVF problem developed, but I have now been taken care of; I thank God because I am feeling fine now.”
She confessed to spending barely two weeks at the centre for the treatment and advised other women suffering from the disease, but still in hiding, to cast off their fear and shame to come out for   cure at the centre. “I know they will be cured the same way I was treated,” she said.
Another victim Mrs. Okereafor, who hails from Owerri  LGA  of Imo State said  she  came  to the VVF center  March 10, 2013 and a surgery was performed on her. “I was asked to come back again. I am praying that the surgery should be successful. They said, I should come back after three months,” she told Weekly Trust.
At the Babbar-Ruga VVF center in Katsina State, some of the patients told Weekly Trust that the center has accorded them adequate attention in treatment and feeding.
Malama Maryam Shehu said, while on admission at the center, patients were given free three square meals and clothes by the Katsina State government.
She said apart from the compassionate treatment  at  the center,  which has also incorporated training of women in various skills, a monthly stipend of  N7,000 per patient is offered by the government.
”After graduation each patient will go home with working tools and a take-off capital of N50,000,” she said.
Principal of the center, Hajiya Zubaida Aliyu Malumfashi, told Weekly Trust that the centre has so far graduated 254 VVF patients. “We have graduated three sets under the present administration and we are in the process of admitting the fourth set. First, we graduated 100; second, 54 and the third batch were 100 patients,” she said.
The Principal said “the VVF patients are being trained on various skills acquisitions during their stay in the centre and after graduation government give them working tools while the MDG give  them take-off capital of N50,000 per patient.”
The VVF center in Katsina trains patients in tailoring, poultry farming, sewing, catering, home decoration and fashion designing among others. Time is therefore ripe for states yet to establish a VVF center to emulate the pioneering efforts of states like Katsina, Ebonyi and the likes in order to tackle this social malaise rocking most marriages in the country.