Intensify Sexual And Reproductive Health Education

Dr. Alexis Nang-beifubah, Ashanti Regional Director of Health, has called for increased sexual and reproductive health education in basic and senior high schools. This, he said, had become necessary given the high incidence of teenage pregnancy, illegal abortion and sexually-transmitted infections. Dr. Nang-beifubah was addressing a two-day workshop in Kumasi to review the year 2000 adolescent reproductive health policy and make recommendations. He made reference to a study conducted by the Ghana Health Service (GHS), which showed that 750,000 teenagers, between the ages of 15 and 19 years, got pregnant in year 2012. The other disturbing finding was that one in 10 maternal mortality cases in Ghana was caused by induced abortion. Again, the study established that out of the 235, 982 people living with HIV/AIDS, the prevalence rate for those aged between 15 to 19 years, was 0.7 per cent. Dr. Nang-beifubah said the significance of sexual and reproductive health education should neither be discounted nor downplayed. The adolescents needed to be assisted to have comprehensive knowledge on sexuality to make the right decisions and choices. The workshop was attended by health-based non-governmental organizations (NGO�s) in Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Northern, Upper West and East Regions. The Health Director said the other high point of effective reproductive health education was that it could tremendously aid the control of population growth to allow for accelerated socio-economic development. Professor Kofi Awusabo-Asare of the Department of Population and Health, University of Cape Coast, urged the NGOs to make sure that knowledge acquired at the workshop was used to promote sexual and reproductive health.