Hepatitis ‘B’ kills 351 people in Sunyani

Available statistics from the Sunyani Municipal Health Directorate revealed that Hepatitis B killed 351 people in the municipality in 2013.

Mr Kwasi Baba, a Physician Assistant and a peer educator, who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Sunyani on Friday, said the deaths were made up of both males and females.

He said the death toll of the disease in the Sunyani Municipality continued to increase, stressing that 211 people died in 2012, 145 in 2011, 135 in 2010 and 207 in 2009.

Mr Baba who granted the interview after educating members of the Parent-Teacher-Association of the SUSEC Model Primary and Junior High School, said Hepatitis ‘B’ was caused by a virus, and one could be infected through sexual intercourse.

He said early detection is a major headway in fighting the disease and appealed to the general public to go for medical checks and screening regularly.

Mr Baba said the disease was more dangerous than HIV/AIDS and mentioned regular fever, cold, headache and shivering as some of the immediate symptoms.

He said considering the rate at which people were dying, there was the need to intensify public education on the disease and appealed to the media to support such a crusade.