Hepatitis Control: Expert Charges Pregnant Women On Screening

Pregnant women in Rivers State and beyond have been urged to ensure screening of hepatitis in order to protect the child against the deadly disease.
This followed the national policy on hepatitis with the view of checking, reducing and ending the spread of hepatitis in the country.
The manager, Rivers State HIV/Hepatitis Control Programme, Dr Golden Owhonda told The Tide in an interview in his office in Port Harcourt, recently, that hepatitis was a dangerous disease that is transmitted from the infected mother to the unborn child.
Owhonda who noted with dismay the delayed and even non-enrollment of most pregnant women in antenatal care clinics regretted that such act was against the hepatitis control policy of ensuring that every new-born child across the country was free of the disease.
He said, “it is a matter of national policy that every pregnant mother be screened of hepatitis because of its seriousness. This will help the prevention of mother-child transmission thereby reducing the rate and spread of hepatitis.
While revealing that hepatitis B was transmitted through blood and the C type transmitted through sex, Owhonda maintained that every HIV patient was also liable to undergoing hepatitis screening as both diseases share similar transmission mode.
“It is important that an HIV positive patient be recommended for hepatitis screening because their mode of transmission is almost the same. They are co-infectious diseases and screening must not be taken for granted,” he said.
Owhonda noted that the federal and state governments have showed a lot of interest in the hepatitis control, revealing that Rivers State government in particular had beefed up its awareness campaign strategies as well as service provision to check the disease in the state.
According to him, “there is a high level of awareness in the area of hepatitis in the state. Secondary care institutions have been trained in helping to create this awareness and we hope to have another bigger stakeholders meeting that will really boost the control of the disease”.
“The state government with the collaborative efforts of stakeholders and partners including the CHAI, Roche, SOGON have not only provided free drugs for part of the treatment of the disease but also made the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital (BMSH) a treatment site for the disease and so, we in the state are blessed and everyone is advised to utilise the opportunity in ensuring screening, treatment, prevention and end of the disease in the state.”

Lady Godknows Ogbulu