President of, the World Hepatitis Alliance (WHA), Dr Danjuma Adda, has urged the Federal Government to integrate hepatitis B tests into antenatal, maternal and child healthcare services.
Adda advised on Friday while speaking on the sidelines of the 2024 Biennial conference, organised by the National Council for Women Societies of (NCWS) in Abuja.
He emphasised the need for the Nigerian government to invest and integrate hepatitis B tests into antenatal, maternal and child healthcare, to strengthen the immunisation programme of the country.
According to him, currently, hepatitis B test is not integrated into maternal and child healthcare programmes.
Adda, who described hepatitis as a serious disease that killed his mother, stated that the government should integrate hepatitis B surface antigen testing in antenatal care and maternal child health programmes so that all women could get tested.
He said that getting tested was part of the fundamental rights of the women, calling on all women across the country to also rise to demand for hepatitis B test.
“The first thing we need to know is that hepatitis B is completely preventable with an effective right vaccine. So, there are two measures to be able to reduce what is called the liver cancer.
“Liver cancer occurs mostly, especially among people who developed hepatitis B, developing liver cancer is more if one gets infected from childhood and because hepatitis B can be transmitted from mother to child.
“The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that pregnant women must be screened for hepatitis so as to identify which woman has hepatitis, and if you know of any of the woman that has this, there is intervention that must be given.
“There are dual interventions, testing for pregnant women, and if the woman is positive to hepatitis B, at 28 weeks of pregnancy, the woman is supposed to be placed on a prophylactic prevention treatment until delivery.
“As soon as the woman delivers, WHO also further recommends that all babies must be given universal vaccination, like Nigeria, for example, uses universal vax dose, universal means, all babies are supposed to get the vaccination regardless of the status of the mother.
“Babies that are born to mothers that are possibly are at higher risk of getting infected with hepatitis B and 15 to 20 per cent children that get infected of hepatitis B from delivery or from birth might develop liver cancer,” president said.
According to him, all pregnant women must go for antenatal. If they don’t go for that, they will not be screened for hepatitis B.
“Even if the women go for antenatal but they do not deliver at the hospital where they undergo antenatal, there is possibility that their babies will not get the vaccine. This will make all of them missed out of the opportunities.”
He called on all pregnant women to take it upon themselves to ensure they attend antenatal and also ensure that they demand for the hepatitis B test during antenatal.
Adda also requested the pregnant mothers to demand for “back dose vaccination” which he said is supposed to be free for all babies within 24 hours of birth.
According to him, this has a high potential to ensure babies are protected from getting the hepatitis virus.
He described hepatitis virus as the leading cause of liver cancer especially in Sub-sahara Africa, stressing that the best prevention was to get a vaccine early enough as part of the early detection.
“Early detection means we need to test more people, and If a person is diagnosed of hepatitis, such a person is supposed to get treatment as early as possible, so prevention and vaccination are the best means to stop the spread of hepatitis.”
