By Luminuos Jannamike

ABUJA — FORMER Military Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retd), and the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, yesterday, lamented Nigeria’s high burden of hepatitis just as they called on the Federal Government to give serious consideration to an upward review of the annual budgetary allocation to the health sector.

General Yakubu Gowon (Rtd)

They said this at an event to mark the 2018 World Hepatitis Day in Abuja.

Gowon, who is the National Goodwill Ambassador for the control of viral hepatitis in Nigeria, said: “To deal with the health problems of the nation, more fund is required. I, therefore, plead and urge the federal and state governments to seriously give consideration to an upward review to the annual budgetary allocation to the Federal and state Ministries of Health to a benchmark that can reduce the burden of viral hepatitis and inclusion into the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, to improve the quality and access to medical facilities across the country.”

On his part, Adewole expressed worry that while 22 million Nigerians were estimated to be infected with Hepatitis B and roughly four million were infected with Hepatitis C.

He said: “I must say that it is sad that while mortality from tuberculosis and HIV is on the decline, the number of deaths from Viral Hepatitis is on the increase as reported in the WHO Report of 2017.

“According to the same WHO report, 22 million Nigerians are estimated to be infected with Hepatitis B while roughly 4 million are infected with Hepatitis C. However, Hepatitis B and C are responsible for 96% of all mortality due to Viral Hepatitis. Nigeria has a prevalence of 11% for Hepatitis B and 2.2% for Hepatitis C respectively.”

(FMOH, 2013).

“The cases of Viral Hepatitis are more common amongst people between the ages of 21 and 40 years. Our target is to eliminate Viral Hepatitis by the year 2030 in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“May I inform you that out of the over 300 million people living with Viral Hepatitis globally, 90% of them do not know their status. In Nigeria, the knowledge of Viral Hepatitis remains low even though it is a leading cause of death.”