Rose Ejembi, Makurdi

Over 100 Benue women, suffering from Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF), are currently undergoing medical screening and treatment at the Bishop Murray Hospital in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.

The VVF medical Outreach, which was organised by the wife of Benue State govermor, Mrs. Eunice Ortom, in collaboration with the Birmingham University Teaching Hospital, Jos, is expected to last for one week.

Speaking with newsmen at the premises of the hospital on Sunday afternoon, leader of the medical team from Jos, Dr. Sunday Langtang said already, over 30 women with VVF have so far registered to be screened for surgery.

He explained further that the team would be performing medical operation on at least 40 women in Makurdi after which those with complicated cases would be transferred to Jos for surgery.

He stated that from data available to the Birmingham University Teaching Hospital in Jos, there are more VVF patients from Benue than any other states in the north central region of Nigeria.

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obstructed labor and pelvic surgery carried out by quacks, lamented a situation where many women especially in the rural areas go through prolonged labor at home and when the situation is almost getting out of hands, they would be rushed to quacks who wrongly perform pelvic surgery on them.

While noting that at least 120 affected women would be attended to and treated in the course of the medical outreach, Langtang however expressed the assurance that over 90 percent of the patients would go home cured.

One of the patients, Mrs. Comfort Mue, who spoke with our correspondent expressed joy at the news of having to undergo surgery to correct her urinary incontinence free of charge and thanked the wife of the state Governor for the gesture.