Sexually abused children need immediate medical attention before reporting the case to the police, parents have been told.
This will help the victims to receive physical and mental care, as well as medication that can prevent HIV and other infections.
Harriet Odoley Klufio, a Child Protection Specialist at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, said if the abuse was reported within 72 hours, anti-retroviral drugs could be given to stop HIV infection.
She warned parents not to delay or try to settle the case at home with the perpetrators.
“You should not dilly-dally trying to get money from the perpetrators to settle the case at home,” she advised.
She said while the abuse was a criminal act that needed police intervention, taking the child-victim to the police station first could scare them.
“So, we prefer that the victims are brought to the hospital first for us to stabilise them psychologically and physically so that they will be able to narrate the incident in a calm state of mind.”
She said the Child Protection Unit of the hospital was child-friendly and had trained staff who could get the necessary information from the victims.
She said the police could visit the victims at the clinic, home or crime scene after they had been discharged.
Trauma and damage
Mrs Klufio, who is also the first Ghanaian Forensic Nurse, described child sexual abuse as a very bad act that caused trauma and damage to the victims.
She said some of them had to undergo several surgeries to repair the opening between the vagina and the rectum caused by the abuse.
She advised parents to educate their children to run away from sexual predators and not to believe their threats.
She said the hospital recorded an average of 40 cases of child abuse every year, with 80 per cent being sexual abuse.
The rest were physical abuse and neglect.
Abandonment of newborns
She also disclosed that abandonment of newborn babies was rising in the hospital due to economic hardships.
She said some women, especially adolescents, delivered their babies and left them at the hospital, claiming they had no money or support.
“They do it all the time. It is not everybody that will have an abortion. They may not even have money for safe abortion so they carry the pregnancy to term, come and deliver, abandon the baby and go back home to say they lost the child.”
She said the National Health Insurance Scheme did not cover everything after delivery and some mothers could not afford diapers and other essentials for their babies.