NHIS: Add Hepatitis - Dr Adwoa Agyei-Nkansah

As Ghana marks World Hepatitis Day today, the government has been implored to let the disease be covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme.

According to Dr Adwoa Agyei-Nkansah, a Physician Specialist at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, the treatment of Hepatitis is highly expensive and cannot be left solely to the patient.

Viral Hepatitis B and C are leading infectious killer diseases affecting 325 million people worldwide, causing about 1.4 million deaths a year.

Hepatitis B and C are the second major killer infectious diseases after tuberculosis, and 9 times more infectious than HIV.

She said: “At least, it should be on the health insurance” because it costs about GHS1,000 to investigate and identify the strain.

Dr Agyei-Nkansah, who was speaking in an interview with Class 91.3FM after the launch of the National Guidelines for prevention, care and treatment of viral Hepatitis in Accra, said : “We should invest in Hepatitis B because it is a preventable disease and it is causing lots of problems, especially liver cancer in people in their productive age group”.