Nearly 20m Nigerians estimated to be living with Hepatitis- FG
By Deborah Onyofufeke
The minister of health, Dr Osagie Ehanire disclosed on Monday that an estimate of nearly 20 Million Nigerians are reportedly infected and living with Hepatitis B and C
He made a call to Nigerians to take this as a wake up call to get tested and treated as the disease has same spreading similarities as HIV
Dr Ehanire made the call at the 2012 World Hepatitis Day flag-off commemoration themed “Bringing Hepatitis Care Closer To You”
Dr Ehanire, harped on the need for improved awareness on the disease to get persons more informed about the disease and on how to seek the appropriate care needed
He said “Despite significant rates of infection, there is very low awareness about the infection, infections are under-reported, under-diagnosed and under-treated. Stigma and discrimination of those infected also pose challenges.
“The spread of Hepatitis B and C, is similar to HIV, fueled by unsafe sexual behavior and injection practices, unsafe blood transfusion, harmful practices such as sharing of sharp objects for scarification marks, tattoos etc and Mother-to-Child transmission”
He acknowledge the need to do much more than ever before to address this to see that the disease is efficiently curbed by 2030
“As a country committed to elimination of viral hepatitis by 2030, the need to create massive public awareness cannot be overemphasized.
“Together with this, we need to build capacity of health care providers, expand access to diagnosis and treatment, and improve community engagement as well as political leadership at all levels”
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He however, explained that in line with the theme for the year, the government with support from it’s partners, is dedicated to seeing that truly, Hepatitis care is brought closer to Nigerians
He noted that treatment protocols for viral Hepatitis has however been developed
He said” In line with this year’s theme, the Federal Ministry of Health with support from its partners, is taking concrete steps to ensure that hepatitis care is indeed brought closer to every Nigerian.
“Important policy and strategic documents as well as treatment protocols for viral hepatitis have been developed in line with the Global Health Sector Strategy for viral hepatitis control.
“You may be aware that in May this year at the 75th World Health Assembly, WHO member states approved a new Global Health Sector Strategy for Viral Hepatitis”
Dr Ehanire revealed that in alignment with the new strategy, Nigeria has developed it’s own National Strategic Framework for Viral Hepatitis which is aimed at achieving the global target of eliminating viral hepatitis by 2030.
He added that Nigeria is one of the first counties to have achieved this in the short time”
