Data On Teenage Pregnancies In Machakos Is Wrong And Misleading

The numbers the media reported on teenage pregnancies in Machakos County were erroneous, County Government has said in a bid to save its face from the criticism that has come with the news of high numbers of teenage pregnancy in the county.

“Our attention has been drawn to reports in the media attributed to your office on the above subject (Teenage Pregnancies In Machakos County)”, the County Government Department of Health and Emergency Services says in a letter addressed to the Children’s department.

The letter addressed to the Director Children’s Department, argued that the figures were inaccurate and portrayed the County Government in a bad light in what is termed as a “wrong picture”.

“The figures you have given are portraying the wrong picture regarding teenage pregnancies in Machakos County,” Machakos County Government tells the Director of Children’s Department in the County accusing it of giving misleading data.

Machakos County Government goes ahead to provide the data they deem to be correct and compare it to 2019’s data which was much higher arguing that COVID-19 could hence not be linked to the teenage pregnancies in the County.

The County Government of Machakos sheds more light on the confusion presented by the numbers saying,” Kindly note adding the monthly numbers to get a total figure is erroneous since a good number of these are ANC visits which are repeated since pregnant teenagers are advised to attend Ante-natal Clinics regularly”.

The Machakos County Government has noted that the DHIS does not segregate new ANC visits and revisits which the County Government noted was a point of failure that needed correction to ensure data is captured adequately

The County Government of Machakos has noted that it is working to create awareness terming teenage pregnancies as “a major health issue that required a multifaceted  multisectoral approach to address.

Read Also Who Is To Blame For Thousands Of Pregnant Underage Girls?