Over 20m Nigerians Living With Hepatitis, Says UCH CMD

The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Professor Jesse Otegbayo, has disclosed that over 20 million Nigerians are living with Hepatitis B and C, adding that 80% of those who have the disease do not kn

Otegbayo who disclosed this while delivering the 548th inaugural lecture of University of Ibadan (UI), held at Trenchard Hall of the institution, titled, “The human workhorse and microbial afflictions: Hepatitis B, its fatal sting, and the tragic trajectory,” said the liver cancer caused by Hepatitis B is very deadly.

Otegbayo noted that the liver was the workhorse or powerhouse of the body because it plays crucial roles in carbohydrate, fat, protein, vitamins, and minerals metabolism, including drug detoxification of ammonia into urea, regulation of blood clotting, immunity, and many others, stressing that it is known to perform over five hundred functions in the body.

“Hepatitis B virus is a viral infection. It is an organism that can’t be seen with naked eyes and it has an effect on the heart, in that it can cause inflammation and it can cause what is called liver cirrhosis and liver cancer.

“The kind of liver cancer that it causes is very deadly. Most of our patients that we see with that cancer usually die within six weeks and three months after the diagnosis because they present late.
“The transmissible form of HBV is found in all body fluids, such as blood, semen, saliva, sweat, urine, and bile, among others. The most effective means of transmission, however, is blood and blood products.

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“Other channels are sexual contacts, saliva, and organ transplantation. Because the organism is highly infectious, only a small quantity of fluid is required to transmit the infection, and in fact, HBV is about a hundred times as infectious as the dreaded HIV virus and could survive for as long as six weeks on a dry surface. It can also resist a temperature of boiling water for one hour and still retain its infectivity.

“Generally, transmission of HBV could be vertical or horizontal. Vertical transmission is from mother to child, while horizontal transmission is from person to person.

“In Africa, HBV is significantly transmitted horizontally during childhood because of contact with exudates from open sores and contact sports. In Ibadan, among blood donors at the University College Hospital, the most common risk factors, and the source of infection through bloodletting were scarification and indiscriminate injections.”