RSG Secures Free Drugs For Hepatitis Treatment …Names BMSH Treatment Centre

Residents of Rivers State can now access and afford the treatment of the deadly disease, Hepatitis C, with the state-owned state-of-the-art health facility, the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital (BMSH) designated as a treatment site for the disease.
Moreso, the Rivers State Government has secured the donation of a substantial quantity of Declostavir, the first component drug for the treatment of the disease and offering it for free with the second component, Sofobufir to be purchased by patients with a minimal out of pocket expense.
The Programme Manager, HIV/Hepatitis Control, Rivers State Ministry of Health, Dr Golden Owhonda who disclosed this during a chat with The Tide in his office in Port Harcourt, Monday, said the state government was poised to ensure that its populace lives above the scourge of the disease. Describing Hepatitis B and C as the most troublesome of the hepatitis types, Owhonda revealed that these types have the ability to damage the liver thereby causing liver cancer, another dangerous ailment of the body system. In his words, “Hepatitis B and C are troublesome because they kill the liver and cause liver cancer. Hepatitis B is difficult to treat but C is curable and we have half the drugs for the treatment of one part for free. Ordinarily, treatment for Hepatitis C is expensive but the state government with the support partners have made the burden less as the second part is very affordable.  Owhonda revealed that the polymerase chain reaction machine responsible for carrying out viral load analysis of hepatitis was also ready at the BMSH, and functioning optimally adding that with the machine, samples were collated within and outside the state for testing and further treatment. While noting that the state had domesticated the national clinical guidelines for the treatment of hepatitis as its own guidelines, the state hepatitis programme manager revealed that it had also trained 20 manpower health care facilities to render hepatitis services to patients across the state.
“On service delivery, the state government has done a lot in the area of hepatitis to free its citizens of the disease. Against the expensive nature of hepatitis treatment, the state government has made it far less. There had been stakeholders awareness update meetings to beef up the treatment processes and collaborative partners including the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) Roche, and Society for Gastro-Intestinal Society of Nigeria (SOGON) have been true to ensuring that the disease is controlled optimally in the state”, Owhonda said. According to him, the CHAI is catalysing the availability of a component of the drug to be distributed for free while Roche was supporting the PCR machine to do viral load analysis of Hepatitis C and the SOGON representative is readily available at the BMSH for treatment calls by patients adding that the free drugs were available at the state central medical stores.
Owhonda further commended the Federal Ministry of Health, the Permanent Secretary, State Ministry of Health, collaborative partners as well as stakeholders for their efforts in reducing the burden of hepatitis in the state saying, “we hope to have a bigger stakeholder update meeting that would serve as a consensus on ways of heightening the measures towards achieving a minimal or free hepatitis state”.

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