Teenage pregnancies soar

By Eddie Ssejjoba                            

KAMPALA - Many youth have been left out of the reproductive health programs denying them a chance of accessing vital services that would prevent them from getting exposed to health risks.

Experts say emphasis should as well be put on young people, majority of who still face big challenges in reproductive health as a result of early exposure to sexual activity that had resulted in unwanted pregnancies, abortions and other risky outcomes.

Hannington Burunde, the head of Communications and information at the Population Secretariat said, “Young people were not catered for in reproductive programs campaign because some people think they were not expected to be involved in sexual activity or to be sexually active.”

“But if we don’t address issues that affect young people’s reproductive health challenges, we would have done a big disservice to the country,” he said, warning about the increasing cases of teenage pregnancies and the risks involved as a big population and development issue that the country needed to tackle urgently. 
 
He was speaking to journalists after a two-day population and development advocacy training workshop in Kampala.

He called upon civil society organizations and the private sector to put in place programs and facilities that are conducive for the youth to access reproductive health services.

“Youth need places that can welcome them and give them the confidentiality that they needed instead of exposing them, something that stigmatizes them,” he said.

Burunde suggested that in every health center, facilities should be put in place to specifically handle teenage issues because many feared to mix up freely with the adults.

“Many start sex early and contract sexually transmitted diseases but fear to go to public hospitals for treatment, others conceive at an early age but fear to expose themselves and end up aborting which sometimes result to death or complications,” he said.

According to Burunde, the youth need advice, guidance and continuous education about the dangers of early sex, abortion, delivering outside a public facility and other issues, which should be done in confidentiality.

Lillian Lwanga, a senior health education officer in the ministry of health said that teenage pregnancy that stands at 24% comes with other risky issues like unsafe abortions, high maternal death, sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/Aids among others.

She observed the need for government to implement the Abuja declaration by increasing its USD5million funding annually so that many of these issues are tackled.