The Ghana Health Service (GHS) is demanding increased funding for the prevention and control of Hepatitis.
A statement by the service on Tuesday stated that Hepatitis B and C are the second leading cause of death through infectious diseases and must be treated with urgency.
In a Citi News interview, the Programs Manager for National Viral Protection and Control Program at the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Emmanuel Dzotsi stressed the need for a nationwide screening as a preventive measure.
“The major challenge for viral hepatitis preventions measure is a challenge with financing, so the theme for this year’s world hepatitis day is investing in eliminating hepatitis because most countries including Ghana doesn’t have adequate funding to be able to put up all the preventive measure. There is the key call to increase the investment in viral hepatitis so that we can screen the entire population so that those who are negative can be offered vaccination and those who are positive are put on treatment,” he said.
According to the Ghana Health Service (GHS) the country is experiencing a prevalence of chronic hepatitis B and C virus infections, which are the leading causes of death from infectious diseases globally.
A statement released by the GHS in Accra on Tuesday said about 421 people died out of 117, 095 viral hepatitis cases between 2014 and 2018 in various health facilities across the country.
“Ghana belongs to areas where the prevalence of chronic hepatitis B infection is high (? 8 per cent) and that of hepatitis C virus is also high (5–10 per cent),” a statement, signed by the acting Director General of the GHS, Dr Patrick Aboagye, and issued ahead of this year’s commemoration of World Hepatitis Day, on July 28, said.
“Viral Hepatitis B and C are leading infectious disease killers, yet the majority of global leaders and the public remain unaware. Viral Hepatitis B and C affect 325 million people worldwide leading to about 1.4 million deaths a year.”
It indicated that “Chronic hepatitis B and C virus infection is the second major killer infectious disease after tuberculosis and nine times more people are infected with Hepatitis than HIV. Deaths from hepatitis have been increasing over the past two decades, which points to a lack of global awareness and action among top decision-makers.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) data show an estimated 257 million people living with chronic hepatitis B and 71 million people living with chronic hepatitis C worldwide.
Viral hepatitis causes more than one million deaths each year. While deaths from tuberculosis and HIV have been declining, deaths from hepatitis are increasing.
World Hepatitis Day is an opportunity to learn the global burden of this disease, and efforts to combat viral hepatitis around the world, and actions individuals can take.