Page 64 - IJPS-10-1

International Journal of

Population Studies

RESEARCH ARTICLE
COVID-19 and access to sexual and reproductive

health services: Perspectives from adolescents
and women in rural areas of Enugu State, Nigeria

Ugochukwu Simeon Asogwa *, Nneka Ifeoma Okafor , and
1
2
Chukwuedozie K. Ajaero 3,4
1 Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu, Nigeria
2 UNESCO Multisectoral Regional Office, Abuja, Nigeria
3 Department of Geography, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu, Nigeria
4 Demography and Population Studies Programme, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg,
South Africa
(This article belongs to Special Issue: Population and Reproductive Health Dynamics under Covid-
19 in Sub-Saharan Africa)

Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has a far-reaching effect on
human activities and relationships, especially on sexual and reproductive health
(SRH). The pandemic exposed the unpreparedness of the governments of many
nations to respond to the longstanding health needs of the people. Adopting a
qualitative research design, this study examined access to quality and affordable
*Corresponding author: SRH in Enugu stat, Nigeria, during COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings revealed that
Ugochukwu Simeon Asogwa
(Ugochukwu.asogwa@unn.edu.ng) SRH products were not easily accessible due to the prolonged lockdowns attributed
to the pandemic. Adolescents and women were discouraged from procuring and
Citation: Asogwa, U.S., accessing SRH services due to artificially induced high prices of the products and the
Okafor, N.I. & Ajaero, C.K. (2024).
COVID-19 and access to sexual added feeling of nosocomephobia which kept people away from medical centers.
and reproductive health services: More effort is needed by government and non-governmental organizations to
Perspectives from adolescents and strengthen access to SRH products in Nigeria, especially during pandemic.
women in rural areas of Enugu
State, Nigeria. International Journal
of Population Studies, 10(1):58-67.
https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.2354 Keywords: COVID-19; Reproductive health; Access; Availability; Adolescent
Received: December 19, 2022
Accepted: December 1, 2023
Published Online: December 26, 2023 1. Introduction
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s). The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has transformed human activities
This is an Open-Access article and relationships with significant effects on sexual and reproductive health (SRH).
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution Following the declaration of pandemic in March 2020, the delivery of frontline service
License, permitting distribution, capacity was almost on the verge of disruption (Church et al., 2020). As the viral
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is infection cases increased at an alarming rate across the globe, the fallout has exposed
properly cited. the unpreparedness of governments, health systems, and social safety networks to
Publisher’s Note: AccScience adequately respond to the longstanding and emerging needs of people worldwide,
Publishing remains neutral with especially relating to the health and rights of women and adolescents (International
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional Women’s Health coalition [IWHC], 2020). The tight restrictions on movement imposed
affiliations. to halt the spread of the virus in many countries had tremendous implications for global

Volume 10 Issue 1 (2024) 58 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.2354