Article Sidebar
Article Details
The entire contents of the Tropical Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology are protected under Indian and international copyrights. The Journal, however, grants to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, perform and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any reasonable non-commercial purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship and ownership of the rights. The journal also grants the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal non-commercial use.
This journal content is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
Main Article Content
Have you seen a rape kit? A snapshot at the quality of care of rape survivors in Nigerian tertiary hospitals
Abstract
Context: The rape kit has become a fundamental tool in the evaluation of the rape survivor in many countries. Its
availability and use in Nigeria has however not been documented.
Objective: To assess the current availability and usage of the rape kit in Nigerian tertiary hospitals, and evaluate the management of rape survivors.
Methodology: Resident Doctors attending the Obstetrics and Gynaecology update course, held in Abuja in March,
2009 were interviewed using a self-administered questionnaire assessing experience in rape management, knowledge about the rape kit and its availability, as well as current management of rape survivors.
Results: There were 138 respondents from 25 tertiary hospitals, with a male-to-female ratio of 2.8:1 and a mean
duration of 3.3 (SD 1.4) years in training. 120 (87%) had personally managed one or more rape survivor(s), but none of the respondents had ever seen a rape kit, and only 29% were aware of it. Although all the respondents indicated availability of emergency contraception, antibiotics and tetanus prophylaxis in their centres, only 32.4% had access to HBV vaccine, and about 8% indicated lack of HIV prophylaxis. Only 28.7% and 45.6% indicated access to clinical psychologists and medical social workers respectively.
Conclusion: The rape kit is not available in Nigerian tertiary hospitals. We recommend its provision, and regular
training of doctors, especially Obstetrics and Gynaecology Residents on rape management, to improve the care of
rape survivors in Nigeria.
Key Words: Rape, Rape kit, Rape survivor, Nigeria.
