Accra, July 27, GNA- The Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) in collaboration with the Maamobi General Hospital has held a free hepatitis screening and immunisation exercise for the residents of Maamobi in Accra.
It formed part of activities to commemorate World Hepatitis Day, which falls on July 28 annually.
The screening exercise was on the theme: “Bringing Hepatitis Care Closer to You.”
Dr Kwadwo Asamoah Kusi, Senior Research Fellow, Immunology Department of the Institute, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the exercise was to enable the public to know their hepatitis status for early detection and prevention.
He said if people did not get checked early to determine their condition, the illness could progress from an acute to a chronic state, making it deadly and difficult for the body to combat.
Dr Kusi said hepatitis was “a silent killer” and did not exhibit any symptoms until it was too late, destroying the liver and necessitating a liver transplant, thus regular checks was important for the safety of all.
“At best the signs one may see are headache, fever, and tummy ache. These are all general symptoms which are also associated with malaria and flu. So, in most cases it does not occur to people that they could be having hepatitis and by the time they realised it, it has become too late to the extent of damaging the liver,” he said.
According to a 2019 World Health Organisation (WHO) global report, some 296 million people are living with chronic hepatitis B infection, 58 million persons with hepatitis C, 1.5 million new infections each year, with 820,000 hepatitis B related deaths.
Dr Kusi said in Ghana, hepatitis infection rate was between 12 -15 per cent, adding that about 90 per cent of people affected with hepatitis recovered on their own within six months of being infected while the remaining 10 per cent went into chronicity.
He said chronic hepatitis had led to an increased mortality rate as people with the condition later suffered from liver cancer when not diagnosed and managed early.
He thus advised the public to take advantage of the free screening and immunisation exercise because hepatitis treatment and medication were expensive and time-consuming.
He urged persons who had vaccinated to check their antibody levels 10 years after their last vaccination to ensure that they still had enough antibodies to defend themselves, adding that the vaccine protection could wane over time.
Madam Helen Tetteh, the Administrator, Maamobi General Hospital, called for more awareness creation because many people were unaware of the disease.
The Administrator said the screening had benefited not only the residents of the community but also the hospital staff because most of them were not aware of their status.
Dr Adelaide Dicka, Deputy Head of Clinical Care at Maamobi General Hospital, expressed appreciation to Noguchi for the collaboration, noting that the exercise was timely because hepatitis was on the rise in the community.
She advised people who tested negative to get vaccinated, and those who were reactive to the disease to get treatment as vaccinations and treatments were available.
Source: Ghana News Agency