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The Ghana Hepatitis Alliance on Wednesday urged the government to review the policy regarding the administration of hepatitis vaccines to newborns in the country.
Health care authorities should ensure that the Expanded Program on Immunization incorporates the 98% effective hepatitis vaccine and administered to newborns within 12 hours of birth.
Currently, in health centers, a newborn can be vaccinated against the disease only after six weeks of life, at the tenth and fourteenth week, which is often late to protect them from the disease. .
Mr. Charles Ampong Adjei, executive director of the Ghana Hepatitis Alliance, said the disease infects and kills many newborns due to late vaccination and underfunding.
He said this at a training session held in Accra by the Alliance to educate health workers.
According to him, in the Ghanaian context, hepatitis B is mainly transmitted from one mother to one child, which "we have not managed to manage as a country because newborns do not are not protected when they need it most ".
He added that data from health facilities reveal that a total of 117,905 cases of viral hepatitis were observed between 2014 and 2018, of which 421 deaths were recorded.
Adjei said it was time for the country to redouble efforts to end the stigma badociated with the disease and inject more funds into its treatment, to prevent unnecessary deaths among newborns. born.
He said that in Ghana, a 12.3% adult population was living with hepatitis B, but they did not ask for medical help or disclose their status because of the stigmatization of health professionals and the society.
Mr. Adjei said that cultural beliefs that hepatitis B was a form of punishment for people who touch a dead body without permission have made the health worker extremely cautious in its management.
"Because health workers are afraid of being infected with the disease, many of them wear more than five gloves at a time to treat a patient, while others relieve some patients to the back, thus increasing their fate, "he said.
He called on policymakers to strengthen their financial and political commitment to enable health workers to step up their efforts to eliminate the disease through public education and vaccination – so that Ghana reaches universal health coverage by 2030.
Mr Adjei said that Ghana belonged to the vast region where the number of hepatitis infections was high and urged the public to contribute to the elimination of the disease by submitting to a screening test and looking for a fast treatment, if the test is positive.
Viral hepatitis B and C are the leading causes of infectious diseases since they affect 325 million people worldwide, resulting in the death of 1.4 million people each year.
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