A survey of female genital schistosomiasis of the lower reproductive tract in the volta basin of Ghana
Abstract
Objective: To determine the prevalence of female genital schistosomiasis in riparian communities in the Volta basin of Ghana,Design: The study was a cross-sectional study conducted among women 15-49 years in the Volta Basin. Urinary schistosomiasis prevalence was
determined using microscopy. A structured questionnaire was also administered to collect information on the demography, obstetric history and reproductive health experiences. Cervical punch biopsy
was collected from women who consented to be screened for FGS. Descriptive statistics was used to determine frequency of occurrence, chi squared and logistic regression to identify associated variables
Results: Urinary schistosomiasis prevalence among the women was 24.8% while 10.6% of them diagnosed with FGS. More FGS diagnosed women (57.7%, p value =0.04%) were observed to report copious discharge, vaginal itch (80.8%, p=0.042) and lower abdominal pain (66.7%, p= 0.041) compared to FGS negative women. The predominant abnormal
observation of the lower genital tract made was erythematous cervix (18.8%).
Conclusion: The study confirms the reproductive health symptoms associated with FGS and recommends awareness creation on FGS among
women in endemic communities to facilitate early treatment.
Articles published in the Ghana Medical Journal may not be published elsewhere without the consent of the publishers. Request for consent for reproduction of material published in the Ghana Medical Journal should be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief. The publisher of this Journal reserves the right of copyright of all articles published in the Journal. It should also be understood by all authors that articles approved for publication in the journal are also deemed for publication online by the publisher.
Ghana Medical Journal is an Open Access journal and applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (Creative Commons Attribution License) 4.0 International. See details on the Creative Commons website (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) to articles and other content published in the Journal.
