Let's attach same aggressiveness to Hep. B as we're doing coronavirus - Virologist

A virologist at the University of Ghana Medical Center, Prof. Kwamena Sagoe, has indicated that if the country was as aggressive about Hepatitis B as much as it is with the coronavirus, the country could phase out the disease in a few years.

He explained that with findings across the country haven proven that particularly for the prisons in the country having the highest records of cases of Hepatitis, the country should be concentrating more of its attention towards there.

"I must indicate that if we are as aggressive as we are doing with COVID-19, Hepatitis B can be eradicated in a few years... besides, the prisons are the places with some of the highest cases of Hep B cases and we should be turning our attention there," he said.

Prof. Kwamena Sagoe made this known during a 6-Month Progress Meeting for the HEPMAL project at the Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research (NMIMR) of the UG.

He also bemoaned that one way stream of testing to diagnose for Hep B, stressing that there should be alternatives to get more diagnosis for the disease.

The project is aimed at understanding the interactions that occur between Hepatitis B and Malaria, and, how those two affect the liver.

Explaining the thematic areas of the project that is supported by the European and Development Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), Prof. Abraham Anang the project is expected to run for four years, during which research will be developed to understand the two diseases.

"It will look at how Hepatitis B can be brought under better control by looking at what are some of the potential risk factors and confounding factors that make Hepatitis control and management possible and the focus is on what does malaria and Hepatitis B what do they do when they are together as co-infections and what is it that we have to learn quickly and do we need to put in place quickly to ensure that the fight against Hepatitis B can be successful," he said.

He explained further that the project is important because it is dealing with two of the most endemic issues in Ghana and even on the African continent.

According to the Vice President of the Hepatitis Foundation of Ghana, Mohammed Kofi, statistics available to it shows that among adults, 8.36% of them have cases of the disease.

For adolescents and children under 5 years, the statistics are 14.30% and 0,55%, respectively.