Issuing fresh guidelines on how to halt FGM, the UN health agency highlighted the important role played by health professionals in detecting the widely condemned practice and supporting survivors.
“Female genital mutilation is a severe violation of girls’ rights and critically endangers their health,“ said Pascale Allotey, WHO’s head of sexual and reproductive health and research.
FGM involves the partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injuries to the female genital organs.
An estimated 230 million girls and women alive today have undergone FGM, according to UN Women, with the practice typically carried out on young girls before they reach puberty.
'Unintentionally legitimising FGM'
However, it remains common in some 30 countries, with around four million girls remaining at risk each year, it said.
It called in its new guidelines for professional codes of conduct that expressly prohibit health workers from performing FGM.
“Research shows that health workers can be influential opinion leaders in changing attitudes on FGM,“ said Christina Pallitto, a WHO scientist who led the development of the new guidelines.
In addition to prevention, the new guidelines include clinical recommendations to help ensure that FGM victims receive empathetic and high quality medical care.
Highlighting the large variety of short- and long-term health issues caused by the practice, the WHO said: “Survivors may need a range of health services at different life stages, from mental health care to management of obstetric risks and, where appropriate, surgical repairs.”
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