Dr. Benjamin Baah Anim, an herbalist at the Geobert Memorial Herbal Center, advised Ghanaians to visit health facilities regularly for hepatitis B.
Dr. Baah Anim said hepatitis B is a silent but surely the most deadly disease that needs immediate medical attention.
He said this in an interview with the press at the Geobert Memorial Herbal Center's hepatitis screening and awareness building today in Kantamato, Accra to commemorate the "World Hepatitis Day".
"Today is World Hepatitis B Day, so as part of our responsibility to contribute to the general well-being of everyone in the country, this is something that Geobert Memorial Herbal Center is doing to raise awareness and also get people to get screened."
Hepatitis B can be spread through contaminated blood products, he said, and much more progress is needed to make blood safe.
In addition, antiviral drugs are available that can suppress virus replication when detected. However, these drugs have to be taken for decades because no curative treatment for chronic HBV infection is available.
Madam Bridget Owusu, a marketeer at Kantamto market who attended the screening, commended the management of Geobert Memorial Herbal Center for the laudable gesture and called on other health centers to emulate them.
"Actually, this is the first time we have witnessed such a screening and I must say that we are grateful to the organizers for choosing the cantamante market. We also discussed how the hepatitis B virus works and its symptoms."
She further appealed to the government to support institutions like the Geobert Memorial Herbal Center to screen more people across the country.
Approximately 500 Kantamto marketers and market men were screened for hepatitis B.
The global agency's results showed that 70 percent of hepatitis B infections worldwide occur in Africa, with 70 percent of cases occurring in children under the age of five, representing 4.5 million infected African children.
The Viral Hepatitis Scorecard 2021 reviewed data from the African region but focused on hepatitis B and C, both of which cause cirrhosis of the liver and cancer. It found that in 19 countries, more than eight percent of the population is infected with hepatitis B, while in 18 countries, more than one percent of the population lives with hepatitis C.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, said: “Hepatitis has been called a silent epidemic, but this scoreboard is sounding the alarm for the region and the world to hear.
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