The West Mamprusi Municipal Health Directorate has raised concerns over unsafe abortions, increasing HIV infections and teenage pregnancies among adolescent girls, warning of potentially life-threatening consequences for young people in the municipality.
The Directorate says teenage pregnancy accounted for nearly 17 per cent of cases recorded by mid-year, a development it considers unsatisfactory compared with the performance of other districts.
Public Health Nurse at the Directorate, Ayembire Kweku, disclosed this during a stakeholder engagement organised by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in Walewale.
He attributed the situation partly to inadequate education and sensitisation on sexual and reproductive health, calling for intensified community-level interventions to help adolescents understand the risks associated with early pregnancy and unsafe abortion practices.
Mr Ayembire warned that some pregnant teenagers resorted to crude methods to terminate their pregnancies, exposing themselves to serious complications, including infections, death and permanent infertility.
He expressed concern that such practices could have lasting consequences for girls who were still at an early stage of their lives.
The health official also linked the rising HIV infections among adolescents to limited awareness of sexual health risks and the consequences of certain behaviours.
He said young people needed more education to make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health.
Mr Ayembire further identified early marriage as a contributing factor to teenage pregnancy, noting that some adolescent girls were compelled to marry at a young age by community members and stakeholders.
He explained that pregnancies resulting from such circumstances were subsequently recorded at health facilities as teenage pregnancies.
He therefore called for greater involvement of traditional leaders, opinion leaders, parents and other community stakeholders in efforts to discourage early marriage and strengthen education for adolescents.
The Public Health Nurse commended the NCCE for organising the stakeholder engagement and urged the Commission and other relevant institutions to sustain and expand public education programmes targeting young people.
He said intensified sensitisation at the community level was necessary to address the factors driving teenage pregnancy and protect adolescent girls from preventable health complications.
