Political commitment key to tackling viral hepatitis, TB, says expert

Tue, Feb 4, 2020
By publisher
3 MIN READ

Health

A Public Health specialist, Dr Patrick Chinedu, says political commitment is what is required to tackle the viral hepatitis scourge and tuberculosis (TB), in the country.

Chinedu was speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Tuesday in Abuja, on the need for political involvement in tackling the two infectious diseases.

The public health specialist noted that though the burdens were huge, there was however, poor political commitment to funding.

He also spoke on the Nigeria HIV/AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS) 2018, led by the  Federal Government and funded by PEPFAR and Global Funds.

NAN reports that NAIIS was being implemented by a consortium of partners across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in six months.

“The NAIIS report shows that the prevalence of Hepatitis B (HBV) and Hepatitis C (HCV) is high – (HBV is 8.1 per cent and HCV- 1.1 per cent), furthermore HIV/HBV  is 8.9 per cent and HIV/HCV is one per cent.

“All of these rates were among ages 15 – 64 years with some states having higher prevalence than the national average.

Taraba for instance, has 19 per cent, while Nasarawa is 14 per cent.

“We are, as well, getting more political commitment at the sub-national levels – outside Lagos and Taraba states

“Last year alone, we saw states dedicating budget lines to viral hepatitis control, as observed in Adamawa, Kwara and recently Nasarawa; and we are currently on the look out for Kogi, Benue, Zamfara and possibly Ogun and Sokoto,” he said

Chinedu, sadly however, said that the death rate of viral hepatitis was on the increase whereas HIV, TB and Malaria deaths rates are on a steady decline.

The specialist further stressed that hepatitis was a silent killer and Nigeria remained one of the few countries in Africa with relevant policy documents for viral hepatitis control.

He, however said that the country had managed to leave the policy-phase to the implementation stage in spite of its attendant challenges.

“Low awareness about viral hepatitis among the populace, human resource challenges including capacity, high cost of management, diagnosis and treatment, and payment for viral hepatitis services is mainly out of pocket, 100 per cent in most cases,” he said.

He, however, emphasised that Nigeria could only win the war against hepatitis if it had domestic funding like Egypt, Rwanda and Uganda.

“Uganda is committing three million dollars from its government to fight viral hepatitis annually, Nigeria must follow suit to win the fight against hepatitis.

NAN, reports that the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH), in 2019, focused mainly on unbundling the country in the area of viral hepatitis strategic interventions.

The year saw appointment of focal persons for the 36 states and FCT; and the FMOH adopted national viral hepatitis policies and implemented same.

This singular appointment of focal persons in 2019, heralded the celebration of World Hepatitis Day across the country for the first time.

During the celebration, more than 70,000 Nigerians were screened for the infection with massive awareness using available community structure in states.

In November 2019, with support from the World Health Organisation, the government commenced the process of integrating viral hepatitis surveillance system into the existing HIV platform.

FMOH also reported 2018 viral hepatitis data on global platform, for the first time in Nigeria.

NAN

– Feb. 4, 2020 @ 19:19 GMT |

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