World Hepatitis Day: Noguchi organizes free health screening to raise awareness

As the world commemorates World Hepatitis Day, personnel from the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) in collaboration with HESPOG and GASLLID have organized free hepatitis screening and vaccination.

The awareness program, which came off at the Banking Square of the University of Ghana, was aimed at screening and vaccinating members of the university community and the public.

World Hepatitis Day is observed and celebrated every year on the 28th of July to sensitize the public and raise awareness.

This year’s celebration is themed; “Hepatitis can’t wait”, conveying the urgency needed to eliminate hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030.”

According to World Health Organization (WHO), hepatitis B is a viral infection that attacks the liver; and can cause both acute and chronic disease.

WHO’’s statistics in 2019 suggest that about 296 million people were living with chronic hepatitis B infection; with 1.5 million new infections each year.

These numbers are alarming, hence health professionals resolution in raising awareness of hepatitis, getting screened and vaccinated.

Speaking at the screening center, Director of NMIMR, Professor Abraham Kwabena Anang emphasized the need for the public to get vaccinated against hepatitis.

“What we are doing here today is contributing to a healthy community. Test and screen, because whether you are positive or you are negative; it is going to contribute to one important thing; the world health. In the whole world, including Ghana, we have agreed that; we have to achieve something called Universal Health Coverage. Meaning that nobody should be left behind, as far as delivering care health is concerned. ”

Mode of Transmission

Hepatitis B can be transmitted from mother to child via birth, through contact with the blood or body fluids of infected persons during sexual intercourse as well as exposure to contaminated sharp objects and unsafe injections.

The WHO suggests there is no specific treatment for hepatitis.

Therefore, there is a need to be screened and get the vaccination to reduce the high risk of contracting the virus or spreading it to your loved ones.