Improved policies, critical to curtailing female genital mutilation – Idris
Improved guidelines, trainings and policies to ensure health professionals can provide counseling to young girls and women has been highlighted as a major solution to the challenge of female genital mutilation in Nigeria. This concerned was expressed by the Commissioner for Health Lagos State, Dr. Jide Idris during a review of the family health programmes of the State. He disclosed that female genital mutilation is a socio-cultural practice that is hazardous and mostly done by traditional circumcisers. He pointed out that the act is usually very harmful to the health of women since it can lead to urinary tract problems, tetanus infection, severe bleeding, cysts, genital swelling, complications during child births and increased risk of neonatal death. According to the Commissioner, “Female genital mutilation or intentional alteration of the genital for non-medical reasons does not have any health benefit as wrongly believed by the proponents, it does not reduce libido i