Viral hepatitis kills more people globally and in Nigeria than the deadly COVID-19 disease.
Globally, over 500 million people suffer from viral hepatitis and 4,000 people die daily from hepatitis and hepatitis-related illnesses.
Omotosho said, “As scary as COVID-19 is, viral hepatitis kills more people than it. Over 500 million people globally suffer from hepatitis. Of this number, almost 1.4 million die every year globally – meaning almost 4,000 people die on a daily basis from hepatitis and hepatitis-related illnesses. Indeed, hepatitis is the Silent killer.
“Almost 20 million Nigerians are working around with the hepatitis virus. Also, less than 5 million of those people know their status. He added, “According to the Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria is one of the countries with the highest burden of viral hepatitis with a prevalence of 11 percent of Hepatitis B and 2.2 percent of Hepatitis C. Across the country, the male to female distribution varies and children are not spared. Cases of viral hepatitis are most commonly found among the age group of 21 to 40 years.
“Other symptoms could be some generalised gastro-intestinal symptoms which again may not be possible to link to hepatitis. The nature of viral hepatitis is such that it can come and pass and become a chronic infection without the person who has become infected knowing at all that they are infected. That is why we are asking everybody to go out and get tested.
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