A paper released by the University of Auckland has called for recognizing child sex abuse as a public health issue.

The document appeared in the Women & Health journal is based on the study of the needs of survivors. It brought out the problems and challenges that female child sexual abuse survivors experienced when seeking health services.

In New Zealand, around 25% of women are victims of child sex abuse and more suffering associated with general medical and mental health problems are suffered by adult survivors.

Dr Kim McGregor, the lead author stated that women who became victims of child sex abuse were more likely to suffer gynaecological problems and got affected with breast cancer in comparison to those who were not abused. He added that such women had also more chances to develop depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Providing specialist training is the key to enabling health care professionals to be aware of the specific needs of survivors of child sexual abuse and deliver positive interventions”, said Dr. McGregor. He added that with the availability of trained and supported health care professionals, the survivors would have a supportive environment that would enable them to talk freely about their problems.