20 Million Nigerians Are Infected With Hepatitis Virus – FG

About 20 million Nigerians are infected with the Hepatitis B and C virus in Nigeria, Community Health physician, Dr Chukwuma Anyaike has said.

Dr Anyaike who is the Head Prevention, Department of Public Health at the Federal Ministry of Health stated this at a one-day stakeholders’ advocacy workshop on Viral Hepatitis awareness organised by the Yakubu Gowon Foundation in Abuja.

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This means one in every 12 Nigerians is infected with the Hepatitis B or C, he said.

He said: “Viral Hepatitis is a very big public health issue in Nigeria. By the work Federal Ministry of Health has done, we have 20 million Nigerians living with Hepatitis B and C and they are at the risk of developing cirrhosis of the liver and cancer of the liver. Most importantly, these ones are living in the communities and they are not aware of it and in the same process, they are transferring the infection to other people in the community.”

Chairman of the occasion, General Yakubu Gowon (Rtd) said Nigeria should consider the spread of the virus a national emergency, “seeing that the prevalence rate of this disease is about double the national HIV prevalence rate. The nation and the world should take note.”

He further explained that approximately 20 million of Nigeria’s 170 million population that are infected by the virus, 25 percent of them go on to develop chronic liver disease and between 500,000 to 700,000 result in deaths annually.

From the survey, Kano has the highest number of people infected with the B variant of the virus while Kwara state has the highest number of people with Hepatitis C.

“What we should do is to create the awareness and to sensitise people on the burden of Viral Hepatitis in Nigeria, and for the various strata of the government to commit some funds to fight viral Hepatitis in the country,” Dr Anyaike said.

Source: daily trust