The World Health Organization released its first-ever guidelines on how medical professionals should treat victims of female genital mutilation (FGM), hoping to ease the terrible suffering caused by the widely condemned practice.
The UN health agency estimates that 200 million women and girls have been subjected to FGM worldwide.
Victims are left to cope with a range of consequences from bleeding and pain while urinating, extreme discomfort during sex, fatal complications in childbirth and deep psychological trauma.
FGM is most prevalent in Africa- where it is practiced in some 30 countries despite widespread criminalisation- as well as pockets of Asia and the Middle East.
While doctors in those regions have a poor track record of treating victims, WHO stressed that global migration had increasingly brought the problem to the West, where medical professionals have also been ill-prepared to respond.
"Health workers are often unaware of the many negative health consequences of FGM and many remain inadequately trained to recognise and treat them properly," WHO said in a statement.
Victims therefore "may suffer needlessly", it added.
Underscoring the global spread of the problem, WHO's at-risk population specialist Lale Say said more than 500,000 women and girls in the United States have suffered from or face the threat of FGM, while some 66,000 women in Britain have been subjected to the practice.
Doris Chou, a maternal and pre-natal health specialist at the UN agency, said that some doctors including in the West do not know "what they are even looking at" when confronted with an FGM victim, a lack of expertise that makes optimal treatment nearly impossible.
With concrete data lacking, developing treatment guidelines was complicated, WHO experts said, and the agency's report notes that some of its recommendations are based on limited evidence.
The guidelines call for FGM sufferers to receive, when needed, psychological support and recommendations relating to obstertics.
One possible consequence of FGM is vaginal closure, which can lead to babies dying during delivery after getting "stuck" in the birth canal, Chou explained.
WHO recommends that health workers perform deinfibulation, a surgical procedure to re-open the vagina, in order to facilitate childbirth.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The UN health agency estimates that 200 million women and girls have been subjected to FGM worldwide.
Victims are left to cope with a range of consequences from bleeding and pain while urinating, extreme discomfort during sex, fatal complications in childbirth and deep psychological trauma.
While doctors in those regions have a poor track record of treating victims, WHO stressed that global migration had increasingly brought the problem to the West, where medical professionals have also been ill-prepared to respond.
Advertisement
Victims therefore "may suffer needlessly", it added.
Advertisement
Doris Chou, a maternal and pre-natal health specialist at the UN agency, said that some doctors including in the West do not know "what they are even looking at" when confronted with an FGM victim, a lack of expertise that makes optimal treatment nearly impossible.
Advertisement
The guidelines call for FGM sufferers to receive, when needed, psychological support and recommendations relating to obstertics.
Advertisement
WHO recommends that health workers perform deinfibulation, a surgical procedure to re-open the vagina, in order to facilitate childbirth.
Advertisement
COMMENTS
Advertisement
US Court Dismisses Female Genital Mutilation Charge Against Indian Doctor Sudan To Ban Female Genital Mutilation, Allow Alcohol For Non-Muslims Mother Jailed For 11-Years For Female Mutilation On 3-Year-Old Daughter Over 300 Indian Students Return As Quota Row Sparks Violence In Bangladesh "Jindal Group Executive Showed Porn, Groped Me On Flight": Woman To NDTV Full Recovery From Global IT Outage Could Take Time: 10 Points CrowdStrike: All About The Cybersecurity Giant Behind Global IT Outage UP Government Forms Lucknow-SCR On The Lines Of Delhi-NCR The Situation At Delhi, Mumbai Airports Day After Global IT Outage Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.