The World Health Organisation (WHO), in collaboration with other partners, has reinforced its commitment in providing the needed support to improve health indices in Borno.
The Borno Coordinator of WHO, Dr Ibrahim Salisu Audu, gave the assurance on Tuesday in his goodwill message at a gathering of stakeholders to mark World Hepatitis Day.
Audu, who lauded the commitment of the Borno Government to health, called for accelerated efforts in preventing, diagnosis, and treatment of hepatitis.
Audu said that an estimate of more than 20 million people were living with hepatitis B, C or both in Nigeria.
“Types B and C hepatitis lead to chronic disease and together are the most common cause of liver cirrhosis, liver cancer and viral-hepatitis related deaths.
“More than 80 per cent of the people who have the disease do not know their status, according to some estimates.
“Many patients discover their diagnosis accidentally while donating blood or undergoing medical screening for other ailments,” he lamented.
Audu said that to expand awareness, improve detection and treatment, WHO had been supporting the government of Nigeria in its National Hepatitis Response.
“We aim to mirror the successful mass awareness programmes of the HIV campaign, which has resulted in increased testing and treatment uptake. For hepatitis, we’re applying the lessons learned from the HIV programme.
“WHO supported the country in developing policy and guidance documents to prevent and treat viral hepatitis across the five core intervention areas; vaccination, prevention of mother to child transmission, blood and injection safety, harm reduction and hepatitis B and C testing and treatment.
“Nigeria has established capacity for viral hepatitis response at all levels, including strategies centred on primary health care and universal health coverage.
“At the national level, hepatitis B vaccination is included as part of routine immunisation for children,” he said.
He commended the Borno government’s efforts in outbreak response, revitalisation of Primary Healthcare, and implementation of the primary healthcare under one roof programme.
In his speech, the Borno Commissioner of Health, Prof. Baba Malum Gana, said that government would continue to sustain collaboration with WHO in fighting the menace of hepatitis.
Gana said that the state government attached priority attention to health, budgeting over 15 per cent of this year’s budget to the health sector in line with Abuja Declaration.
He said that the government had already prioritised public awareness as a vital step in containing the disease.
