• as WHO says 350 million infected globally, many unknowingly infected with virus
A gastroenterologist at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Prof Jesse Otegbayo, has said that about 23 million Nigerians are living with Hepatitis B, the virus said to predispose sufferers to liver cirrhosis and liver cancer.
Speaking with Sunday Tribune, the health expert disclosed that recent finding by a technical working group from the Federal Ministry of Health showed that another 4 percent of Nigerians also have Hepatitis C.
The expert, who said the prevalence of hepatitis based on hospital data before now was 20 per cent, declared that many Nigerians had contracted the virus from unscreened blood and blood products.
“Blood is supposed to be screened for HIV, and hepatitis B and C and so on, but there are still some people who don’t screen for those things. So when you transfuse someone with the blood that is hepatitis positive, of course you are directly infecting the person,” he said.
The don added that hepatitis would be transmitted during childhood, when children had sores on their bodies and the fluids from the sores touch other children, as well as among those that engaged in contact sports.
“When serum that oozes from bruises touches another person, hepatitis can be transmitted,” he said.
He declared that transmission of hepatitis also takes place during scarification and tattooing, sharing of sharp objects like clippers, needles and toothbrushes.
He warned that hepatitis spreads easily in families through sharing of implements or utensils such as spoons, knives, needles, as well as during surgery when unsterilized equipment are used.
He added: “In some local hospitals, some reuse needles after boiling them, but hepatitis virus is a resistant virus, it will not die except they autoclave such things
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has also raised the alarm that about 350 million people, who have the disease globally are unaware or unable to receieve treatment.
The global health agency, while raising the alarm on the World Hepatitis Day, marked, said that action was needed to find, test and treat millions of people unknowingly infected with viral hepatitis.
According to WHO, viral hepatitis B and C are major health challenges, affecting 325 million people globally, and they are the root causes of liver cancer, leading to 1.34 million deaths every year.
Nigerian Tribune
