Centre for Family Health Initiative, a non-profit organisation, on Friday took its campaign against hepatitis to Female Sex Works (FSW) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Executive Director of the Centre, Mrs Princess Oleribe led the team on the campaign in Kubwa, a suburb in the FCT.
She said that it was part of efforts to mark World Hepatitis Day 2019 with a focus on finding people living with hepatitis who were undiagnosed and linking them to care.
The Day is celebrated globally on July 28.
The theme for this year is “Find the Missing Millions” aimed at raising awareness around viral hepatitis and the impact it has worldwide.
Oleribe explained that hepatitis was a disease condition caused by a virus saying that in Nigeria today, “we have a lot of it, more common than people realise.”
She said that there was the viral and non-viral hepatitis.
“The viral is caused by the virus A, B, C, D and E and are those ones that can transmit from one person to another. And that is definitely something you should be conscious about.
“The A and E, you are looking at hygiene; how your water and food is made and prepared and how it can move from one person to another.
“For B, C, especially, you are looking at sexual transmission, mother-to-child transmission, sharing of sharp objects and many of those things we have come to know within the space of HIV.
While speaking on the focus on women, Oleribe said that viral hepatitis was sexually transmitted, “so if you are in a trade that exposes you to more sex so to speak, then you may be at more risk.
“And so we want to make sure they are save and we are not judging anybody but we are saying you can be protected.
“Unlike the women who have a place where you go meet them, men don’t have that kind of residence where you find them all in one place.
“We are definitely happy to deal with men as with women.
“There is an estimation of about 20 to 24 million of Nigerians living with Hepatitis; and the problem with it is that when you say Hepatitis, you are talking about the liver.
“The liver’s main job is to filter the blood coming from the digestive tract, before passing it to the rest of the body. The liver also detoxifies chemicals and metabolises drugs.”
She said that hepatitis affected the liver and when the liver was gone, then the person is death.
“That is why the disease is a very delicate situation to call people’s attention to, and cause Nigerians to assess, first of all, do I have it, if I have it what can I do.”
She further explained that the disease was deadlier than HIV because of the lack of awareness of the infection.
“People tend to be more afraid of HIV and more deliberate about knowing their status with HIV. But with hepatitis, people tend not to even pay attention to it till they are down and dying.
“But it is something to pay attention to, something that kills and for hepatitis C, we have treatment for it.
“Essentially, all the viral hepatitis can be prevented and there is treatment for those that don’t have cure like hepatitis B.
“We want people to be much more conscious than denying it and doing nothing about it.
“They need to know this is for real as there are millions of Nigerians infected with the virus and there is a way out of it and they can do something about it,” she advised
Also speaking, Dr. Mariam Alhassan, a medical officer at centre, said acute hepatitis was the state between the first time a person got in contact with the virus to six months after.
“In that period, research has shown that if the body has good immunity, it should be strong enough to be able to clear that virus on it is own.
“But if not, after six months you have to go for testing, if you are still testing positive that means your body has not been able to get rid of it, you have gotten to the chronic state which causes cancer of the liver.”
She advised Nigerians to go for testing to determine their status and if positive, should get the needed treatment.
One of the beneficiaries, Mr Samson Jikko, Secretary to the District Head of Maitama Resettlement Town, Kubwa, appreciated the team for their effort at creating awareness on the dangers of the disease.
“I am now better informed on the predisposing factors to hepatitis.”