Nigeria: Surgeons Create Anus for Girl Born Without OneBy Judd-Leonard Okafor

Surgeons treating women with fistula made a breakthrough on Wednesday, creating a new anus for a nine-year-old girl born without one.

The girl is one of two living with congenital fistula among dozens of women screened for correction surgeries at Ogoja General Hospital.

Congenital fistulas in which baby girls are born with unopened vaginas or anus are rare but occur, doctors say.

The nine-year-old was born with a closed anus, forcing her to pass both urine and faeces through her vagina, the predominant feature of obstetric fistula.

In a procedure that lasted a few hours, surgeons bore her a new anus and diverted her bowel movement through the new opening.

The surgeons and other health workers had been pooled to repair women living with fistula in regular campaigns supported by Engender Health, which implements the US-funded Fistula Care Plus (FC+) in Nigeria.

It is the 16th pool surgery for fistula at Ogoja General Hospital, where more than 500 women with fistula have been treated since 2015.

The team, which includes fistula surgeon and former Zamfara health commissioner Sa'ad Idris, FC+ clinical associate Suleiman Zakariya and support staff drawn Ogoja General, hopes to treat more than 30 women this week alone.