Sexual and Gender-Based Violence at the << One Stop Center Care Unit >> The Referral Health Centre In Commune V of the District of Bamako, Mali

Abstract

Summary: Introduction: Sexual violence is an all-encompassing term that refers to "any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, comment or advance of a sexual nature directed against a person's sexuality using coercion" according to the WHO. Objective: Study sexual violence based on gender at the level of the care unit << One Stop Center >> the Reference Health Center of Commune V of the District of Bamako. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive and analytical cross-sectional retrospective study from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2020. We included in this study, all survivors of sexual violence at least 10 years old admitted to the "One Stop Center" care unit of the Reference Health Center of Commune V of the District of Bamako. Results: The prevalence of sexual violence was 54.62% in relation to all cases of gender-based violence and 3.36% in relation to all gynaecological emergencies. The age group less than or equal to 19 years accounted for 54.18% of survivors, 69.68% of survivors were single. In 39.95% of the cases the incident took place in the home of the alleged perpetrator of the sexual assault. The survivors had presented a state of fear and panic in 23.92% of cases. Penetration was << penis-vagina >> in 37.1% of survivors. Survivors received psychiatric assistance in 12.87% of cases. Conclusion: Sexual violence is relatively common in our care unit << One Stop Center >>. They had constituted the majority of cases of gender-based violence. The care was holistic.