By Tina George, Minna
ASHENEWS reports that the Niger State Ministry of Health has disclosed that hepatitis B vaccines have been incorporated into the routine immunization cycle of children who are born in any healthcare center across the state.
The Director of Immunization at the State Primary Healthcare, Dr Samuel Jiya explained that the first immunization is given immediately after birth and is scheduled to be immunized until he is six months of age.
According to him, the state does not currently have free immunization for adults but for children so that their immunity can be protected.
“At the moment, there are only special interventions for adults as anyone who wants to take the vaccination will have to purchase them from a pharmaceutical company. What we have free is the hepatitis vaccine for children below one year, which they take from birth. “
Briefing newsmen in Minna, the Permanent Secretary in the Niger state Ministry of Health, Dr Mohammed Gana said that a total of 31,344 persons across the state have been tested for hepatitis between January and May 2023.
He added that the positivity rate for the Hepatitis B virus was 7.1 percent which means that seven people out of every 100 people had Hepatitis in the state.
“During the same period, 10,016 pregnant women were tested for Hepatitis C and nine people out of every 100 pregnant women were positive. These figures are high and all hands must be on deck to bring the menace of this disease to a halt in Niger state”, he said.
Gana reiterated the government’s commitment to its elimination by adopting the National Strategic Framework (NSF) for the control of vital Hepatitis in Nigeria.
“More testing/screening will be conducted and we will ensure that those that are positive and need treatment will be put on treatment while those that are negative will receive the vaccine. Our molecular laboratory will be made more functional to be able to determine those that need treatment among the positive ones.
“As a government, we did not wait for people to die before making policies that have created an enabling environment for the elimination of vital Hepatitis. We should not wait for people to die before being diagnosed, we should not wait for people to die before treating those infected”, he stated.
The ministry set up testing services for vital Hepatitis and HIV at the new state secretariat and the Mobil roundabout where members of the public were tested and given their test reports.
