Foundation advocates more funding to eliminate hepatitis

Tribune Online
Foundation advocates more funding to eliminate hepatitis

Dr Nseabasi Ekanem, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Trinity Healthcare Foundation, has called for more funding of healthcare services to eliminate the spread of viral hepatitis in the country.

Ekanem made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Uyo on Wednesday.

According to him, governments at all levels in Nigeria should also increase their budgetary allocation to the health sector to check the scourge.

He said that apart from increased funding, creation of awareness and sensitisation must be taken very seriously as they were applicable to HIV/AIDS.

According to Ekanem, more than 22 million of the country’s population are infected with viral hepatitis but no less than two per cent of the infected population are aware of the ailment.

He expressed displeasure that more than 87 per cent of those living with viral hepatitis could not access diagnosis, saying that lack of diagnosis accounted for the late presentation of viral hepatitis for treatment.

“In fact, it is sad to state that even when over 22 million of our population is living with viral hepatitis, less than 2 per cent of them are aware of their condition.

“In a survey carried out in 2016 in Lagos by Trinity Healthcare Foundation among pregnant women, less than two per cent of them knew about Hepatitis B and C.

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“Only 0.52 per cent of them knew that Hepatitis B can be transmitted from mother to child.

“If we must be on track to ending viral hepatitis in Nigeria, we must be ready to invest in improving healthcare service delivery for people living with Viral Hepatitis just as has been done for HIV/AIDS,’’ Ekanem said.

According to him, most of the people living with viral hepatitis in Nigeria do not have access to diagnosis either because of the paucity of diagnostic facilities or high cost of diagnosis.

He said that Trinity Healthcare Foundation is a non-profit organisation that was committed to advocating and assisting people living with viral hepatitis to access quality healthcare services irrespective of their economic status and geographical location.

Ekanem said that the organisation had assisted no fewer than 3, 850 Nigerians to get access to diagnosis, treatment and vaccination before now.

He said: ‘’We have equally trained a number of healthcare providers on strengthening the delivery of viral hepatitis services.

“The aim of this intervention is to fill the gaps that exist both on the demand side and the service delivery end of the system.

“We believe that if the government  can adequately support and effectively engage Civil Society Organisations, we can achieve community impact, create the much-needed awareness and improve access to diagnosis and treatment.’’

He said that a recent publication made by the World Health Organisation (WHO), showed that viral hepatitis typified by Hepatitis B and C killed more people than HIV, Malaria or Tuberculosis.

Ekanem noted that though there were five types of hepatitis viruses, including Hepatitis A, B, C, D and E, Nigeria was predominantly plagued with the B and C types of the virus.

According to him, viral hepatitis is the inflammation of the human liver causing an acute (short term) or chronic (long term) injury to the liver with the possibility of leading to liver cancer, failure or death.

“We must rise up to the challenge of eliminating viral hepatitis by the year 2030. There is a great need for a national action plan on viral hepatitis to be implemented,’’ he said.

Foundation advocates more funding to eliminate hepatitis
Tribune Online