Dr Remilekun Olalekun, a Hepathologist in an Abuja-based hospital, has stressed the need for increased attention to Hepatitis B and C, saying they are major causes of liver cancer.
Olalekun said this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
She added that viral hepatitis which caused liver cirrhosis, liver failure, liver cancer and death, had been ignored for
too long, noting that liver cancer was the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the world.
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The hepatologist said Hepatitis B and C were more dangerous than HIV, TB and malaria, stressing, however, that
they were preventable “and Hepatitis C could be cured.”
She, therefore, urged the Federal Government to produce a national policy to completely eliminate the disease.
Olalekun explained that Hepatitis E is another class of the viral disease which could lead to liver failure in pregnant
women and yet a vaccine-preventable illness.
She stressed the need for increased awareness on the disease as the world gets set to celebrate 2019 World Hepatitis Day on July 28.
The theme for this year’s celebration is “Eliminate Hepatitis” and the campaign focuses on “Finding the Missing
Millions.”
The World Hepatitis Day is global awareness-raising and advocacy campaign aimed at tackling barriers to diagnosis
by putting civil society organisations and affected communities at the heart of the solution.
The day was also to bring to the fore, the global burden of viral hepatitis, with the primary campaign goal of eliminating the disease by 2030.
and then