By Damba Rogers.
Prof. Olufunmilayo Lesi, the WHO regional office for Africa has today lauded Uganda for her exceeding efforts into the fight against hepatitis B and C on the African continent.
Presenting
the first scorecard for WHO Africa region 2019 on hepatitis, Prof. Lesi attributes the best
practices towards achieving the 2030
WHO hepatitis elimination goals exhibited by Uganda to the continued political
will from Ugandan leaders towards testing, screening and treating positive
persons as well as the continued massive vaccination exercise that are always
held in highly burdened areas.
The report
further puts the hepatitis burden in Africa at 60 million people living with the disease in 2015 and 4.8 million of
them were children under five years and 10
million were living with hepatitis C
VIRUS.
The
scorecard further reveals the lack of systematic hepatitis B birth dose
administration in more than 35
countries, the low vaccination costs at
less that USD.20 per child.
With Uganda
investing USD. 3 million a year, saw
a massive free hepatitis B screening
programme in 2015 along with wide spread mass community sensitization and
awareness which has seen more than 30%
of the country’s population who are infected with hepatitis B are now aware of
their status and can access comprehensive treatment services.
Now the President
of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni
wants all at risk population in the country vaccinated against Hepatitis as one
of the ways to curb down the spread of the virual disease in the country.
Reading the
president’s speech at the opening of the 1st African Hepatitis
conference today in Kampala, the vice president, Edward Sekande pointed out key populations like; infants, commercial
sex workers, prisoners, armed forces, medical personnel among others to have
them vaccinated against the disease.
The
president further reminded the health ministry to always sensitize communities
on the transmission modes of Hepatitis.
However, the
health minister, Jane Aceng notes
that risk population will be given special status in the ongoing nationwide
hepatitis vaccination and treatment.
She also
reveals that plans are in high gear to
have free treatment for hepatitis C with full support from the Egyptian government.
Though Uganda
has managed to vaccinate 3.7 million people of the disease, the country still
carries the burden of over 2 million people living with hepatitis.
Meanwhile,
Uganda’s health minister Jane Ruth Aceng
exhibited gratitude for the results released by the WHO hepatitis survey and
pledges to work on improving on the areas of weakness.
Globally
over 350 people are living with
Hepatitis and Africa accounts for 60
million people carrying the disease leading to 250,000 deaths annually. Uganda now harbors two million people
living with Hepatitis.
Now African
countries among other countries on the globe are urged to invest more in
testing, screening and treating Hepatitis B&C now to digging deep into
their resources late to fight the disese.
Uganda,
Egypt, Rwanda, TZ being among the best countries in trucking hepatitis, Angola,
Congo, Mali among others are really performing poorly in trucking hepatitis on
the continent.
END