Over 20 million Nigerians infected with Hepatitis —Expert

An expert in gastroenterologist in the University College Hospital (UCH), Professor Jesse Otegbayo, has said that between 11 and 14 per cent, that is about 23 million Nigerians are living with Hepatitis B, the virus said to predispose to liver cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Speaking with Sunday Tribune, the health expert disclosed that based on the recent technical working group from the Federal Ministry of Health revealed that another 4 per cent of Nigerians also have HepatitisC.

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 hepatitisB 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 sours on their bodies and the fluids from the sore touche another 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 would also take place during scarification and tattooing, sharing of sharp objects like clippers, needles, toothbrushes.

However, he warned that hepatitis was spread easily in families through sharing of implement or utensils such as spoons, knives, needles, as well as during sex and surgery when unsterilized equipment are used.

She 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

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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 recieve 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 viralhepatitis.

According to WHO, viralhepatitis 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.