World Hepatitis Day: Over 900 persons screened, others vaccinated in Ho

Ghana's Association for the Study of the Liver and the Digestive Diseases in collaboration with the Ho Teaching Hospital and other stakeholders in the Volta region has held a National Hepatitis Day celebration at Ho to mark this year's World Hepatitis Day.

The week-long celebration in the region was marked with a series of activities especially in Ho to raise awareness and influence the reduction of the spread of the disease.

As part of the celebration, the Association and the Ho Teaching Hospital have reached out to communities with free screening and vaccination exercises to mark the celebration.

Records show a total of nine hundred and thirty (930) persons have been screened for Hepatitis B virus and over six hundred were also vaccinated within the week of the celebration at Ho and Anfoega Senior High School.

It was also disclosed that several treatments were also referred to care and education was also given to communities including the Afoega Senior High School in the North Dayi district.

In an interview with Yao Asante Awuku the president of the Ghana Association for the Study of the Liver and the Digestive Diseases (GASLIDD) downplay the spiritual perceptions of Hepatitis since he believed that it's a physical component since they know about the transmission, diagnosis and how it can be treated.

According to him, their main aim was to campaign and educate the public on the need to test to know their status and enable individuals to know the next steps to take so far as the disease is concerned.

"In terms of what people think as in spiritual component, No! We think is about the physical component we know about the transmission, we know about how it is diagnosed and how it is treated, and even for viral hepatitis C fact that it can have a cure, so this is the campaign that we've been on till today, we have educated the public on the need to test to know their status" Awuku stated.

Asante Awuku however appealed to the government to enroll the Hepatitis treatment fully onto the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) since he thinks the government's support is woefully inadequate in the fight against the disease in the country.

"If you look at the insurance, testing is actually covered by the insurance but there are further investigations that they need like the viral loads, genotyping which is not covered by the National Health Insurance and therefore one will have to pay out of pocket, again treatment for both hepatitis B and C are not covered by national Health Insurance Scheme so one has to pay on his or her own", he noted.

He further lamented that even though there is a vaccination for people who are negative which will prevent them from getting the disease, they can't afford it because they are expensive. He added that even the health workers pay to get vaccinated.

He mentioned that as efforts to eradicate viral hepatitis from the country, besides the national event at Ho, similar events have taken place in various parts of the country and GASLIDD will continue educating the public and also continue to provide their opinions and critical support to hospitals.

Addressing the stakeholders at the celebration, Lydia Aziato the Vice Chancellor of the University of Health and Allied Sciences, (UHAS) also appealed to the government to make the treatment of Hepatitis available, accessible, and affordable to the people.

She charged the health professionals to check their attitudes in the various facilities not to scare the patients from visiting them and also learn more communication skills especially the local dialect to enable easy flow of communication with the patients.

Aziato further urged the general public to seek early diagnosis by visiting hospitals for early detection and treatments.

Kenneth Tachie a member of GASLIDD and the keynote speaker to mark the celebration charged the policymakers to invest more into the fight against Hepatitis to enable the country to meet the target.

He bemoaned the unavailability of experts who can take decisions on who needs treatment and who needs follow-up and also make more research into finding treatment for hepatitis B.

He stressed the myths surrounding hepatitis saying patients are not restricted from eating any kind of food but urged the public to practice safe measures to protect themselves from the hepatitis virus.

"The liver is vital, let's protect it, we just have one, so protect your liver, protect your Life, protect your love ones I can't wait to be vaccinated or treated for hepatitis so I encourage you to also not wait to know your status if you are negative get vaccinated and if you're positive get treated", Tachie advised.