Shy to talk about sex

Health Watch, Normal
Source:

The National, Thursday January 30th, 2014

 By ZACHERY PER

SOME women in rural area are embarrassed to freely discuss with health workers about sexual problems they have, a health official says.

Officer in charge of the Lufa district health services in Eastern Highlands Gabriel Wau said it was even worse if the health worker was a male.

He pointed this out at a meeting with people of remote Gotomi in Lufa district on Tuesday.

He said the women were embarrassed to talk about their private parts, especially when facing maternal problems.

He said most of the village women found it difficult to talk about their private parts to health workers when they came to clinics seeking treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and other illnesses affecting their genitals.

“The health workers are trained to understand situations facing women but they are just too shy,” he said.

“That is why many mothers in rural areas died because they did not receive the right medical treatment.”

He however said sometimes their body language would indicate what they were suffering.

Gotomi women’s spokesperson Kasmalyn Ben had requested that a female health worker be posted to the Gotomi clinic so that the sick women could freely talk to her about their complications.

There are currently only two male health workers serving more than 10,000 people in Gotomi.

Wau said there were 76 confirmed cases of HIV in Lufa who were currently on antiretroviral (ART) treatment. 

He encouraged the people to have blood checks to know their HIV status.

There are only four female nurses and two female health workers serving Lufa district.