PREVENT HEPATITIS: ACT NOW

Hepatitis means inflammation of the liver. It is most often caused by one of several viruses:

• Hepatitis A
• Hepatitis B
• Hepatitis C

WHO in a press statement said it is focusing particularly on Hepatitis B and C which together cause approximately 80 percent of all liver cancer deaths and kill close to 1.4 million people every year.Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C can progress to a chronic or lifelong infection which can cause serious health problems including liver damage, cirrhosis, liver cancer and death.

 According to the society for Gastroenterology and Hepatology in Nigeria(SOGHIN),Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is 50 to 100 times more infectious than HIV.

You can get Hepatitis B when you have contact with infected blood,semen and other body fluids from having sex with an infected person, sharing contaminated needles to inject drugs or from an infected mother to her new born.

Hepatitis C is a liver disease caused by Hepatitis C virus. Infection sometimes results to an acute illness, but most often becomes a chronic condition that can lead to cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer. You can get Hepatitis C when you have contact with the blood of an infected person primarily through sharing contaminated needles to ict drugs.

To curb the rising cases of the viral infection,the WHO recommends among other things that people should know their risk, demand safe injections, get vaccinated, get tested and seek treatment.