Desist from washing the vagina with herbal concoctions – Dr. Owusu-Afriyie

Desist from washing the vagina with herbal concoctions as such a practice is dangerous to the female genital organ Dr. Mrs. Anita Owusu-Afriyie, a Medical Officer at the Oncology Department, International Maritime Hospital (IMaH) has advised women.

Dr. Mrs. Owusu-Afriyie noted that females who wash their vagina with an unprescribed feminine wash with the belief that it will cause dryness and cure vagina infections are misinformation, therefore, one needs to stop such practices which can cause severe dangers to the vagina.

She explained further that the use of cloves and water as many females do to wash the vagina can cause injuries to the soft and delicate skin of the vagina.

"Furthermore, washing the vagina with herbal-made feminine wash would not make there tight but would rather expose the female genitals to infections which not treated well will lead to damage. This could lead one in developing cancer of the cervix."

Dr. Mrs. Owusu-Afriyie gave the warning at “Your Health! Our Concern! A Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office,” an initiative aimed at promoting communication on health-related and setting the medium for the propagation of health information to influence personal health choices by improving health literacy.

The GNA-Tema Your Health! Our Concern initiative also serves as a public health advocacy platform initiated to explore the parameters of the four approaches to health communication: informative, educating, persuasive, and prompting.

She stated that even though lack of personal hygiene is a risk factor for cervical cancer, it does not require the insertion of medicines that have not been prescribed by a health expert into the private parts.

She said seeking proper health care will help treat any infections of the vagina, therefore, it is more important to maintain healthy personal hygiene.

She cautioned that the vagina has a PH level that helps to protect itself from harmful bacterial infections. The body’s estrogen helps keep the vagina in a healthy stage.

Dr. Mrs. Owusu-Afriyie stressed that the vagina must simply be washed with clean water which will help in maintaining its cleanliness and keep it hygienic. "Again practicing good personal hygiene will prevent the vagina from getting infected hence it helps reduce the risk of cervical cancer."

Mr. Francis Ameyibor, Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Manager explained that “Your Health! Our Concern” seeks to leverage Ghana News Agency’s communication expertise together with the health professional skills to educate the public to understand that the health of everyone matters and should be the concern of all.

He said parents’ health should be the concern of children and vice versa, employees’ health should be the concern of employers, and in general, Health professionals’ health should be the concern of the public, while the reverse should also hold.

“We must all be concerned about the health of some other person in order to develop a healthy society,” Mr. Ameyibor noted.

Mr. Ameyibor said the weekly health dialogue platform would also be used as an effective communication channel for health professionals to educate the public on healthy practices and other general health challenges.

-CDA Consult || Contributor