INVESTIGATION OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN EASTERN DRC PRESENTATION TO PANZI HOSPITAL Many sexual violence survivors who presented to Panzi Hospital came alone (36%). Other women were accompanied by aid workers (13%), family members (7%) or other patients traveling to Panzi Hospital (7%). Less than 1% of women were accompanied by their husbands. In total, 73% of women reported “vehicle” as their mode of transportation to Panzi Hospital without differentiating private vehicle, taxi, bus, ambulance or other. Another 18% walked to the hospital to receive care. Less than 1% of women took a flight to reach Panzi Hospital and less than 1% traveled by boat. Most sexual violence survivors (92%) reported that they had accessed the services of a NonGovernmental Organization (NGO) prior to seeking medical care at Panzi Hospital. For 86% of those women, the service rendered by the NGO was transfer to Panzi Hospital. A third of the sexual violence records did not include the month that the woman was raped. In many instances where the month of attack was missing, the rape had occurred several years prior to arrival at Panzi Hospital, thus representing cases where there was a significant delay between sexual violence and presentation to medical care. In order to calculate the time intervals between rape and seeking medical care, the month of attack was assumed to be June for any record in which the actual month was not provided. As shown in Table 2, there was a significant time delay between the sexual assault and presentation to Panzi Hospital. The mean time delay was 10.4 months and the median time delay was 7 months. Only 12% of women presented within the first month following the sexual assault. Many women came within the first year following the attack or had a much-delayed presentation, not seeking help for more than three years following the assault. Delay < 1 month 2 – 12 months 13 – 24 months 25 – 36 months > 36 months Total Number 511 1,593 443 152 1,612 4,311 Percentage 11.8 37.0 10.3 3.5 37.4 100 Table 2. Delay between sexual violence and presentation to Panzi Hospital. For the purposes of this calculation, the month was assumed to be June for any record in which the actual month was not provided. Throughout the data collection period, the delay between sexual violence and time to presentation at Panzi Hospital did not shorten. For instance, the average time delay in 2005 was 9.4 months versus 13.7 months in 2008. The analysis for 2004 was difficult because so many of the sexual assault records for 2004 did not include the month of the sexual assault. 11