Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE government has called upon private and religious hospitals to lower the diagnosis, treatment and vaccine of hepatitis B and C, so that many can access the services.
The Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Dr Dorothy Gwajima issued the call in a statement to commemorate World Hepatitis Day.
Dr Gwajima reaffirmed the government’s commitment to increase awareness and remind the public on the need for early checkup so that they either get vaccine if not infected or start treatment in due time.
Dr Gwajima said it is high time for the private and religious hospitals to lower the cost, so that together they can handle the spread of Hepatitis of which B and C type are more dangerous. She said the government’s decision to purchase drugs directly from manufacturers has seen the price of hepatitis B vaccine dropping to 5,300/- from 22,000/-, thus the need for the private hospitals and religious entities offering health services to lower the cost.
According to the World Health Organisation, at least 884,000 people die each year from hepatitis complications. It is estimated that every two minutes, two people die from hepatitis worldwide.
“The government is putting in place joint strategies and efforts with stakeholders, so that we can be able to control the disease in the country and ultimately be able to eradicate it by 2030,” she said.
She added that hepatitis B requires serious effort to combat, describing the disease as dangerous and is killing large numbers of people slowly.
The minister said out of 100 people, eight have infection of the disease and may not show any symptoms at early stages and that a large percentage of patients develop the disease in the late stages and thus fail to get early treatment and lead to loss of life.
She noted that the data from the National Safe Blood Programme (NBTS) indicate that hepatitis B infection in blood donors rose for three consecutive years. In 2018, out of 307,835 blood donors, 13,613 people (4.4) per cent were infected.
In 2019, out of 258,779 blood donors, approximately 14,123 people (5.5) per cent were infected. In 2020, out of 263,119 blood donors, approximately 15,923 people, almost 6.1 per cent got the disease. Dr Gwajima named the regions with the highest infection rates of hepatitis B and their percentage in brackets as Hepatitis B, Geita (8.7), Morogoro (7.7), Rukwa (7), and Shinyanga (7.4) as per data collected from blood donors in 2020.
For the case of hepatitis C, regions with highest cases as per 2020 blood donor data are Mtwara (5.5), Ruvuma, Kilimanjaro and Geita (4.6) and Lindi (4.5). Elaborating further, Dr Gwajima said a special study carried out by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), showed that hepatitis B infection rate is four per cent for Tanzanians aged between 15- 49 years as of 2017.
Additionally, she tipped that the disease can be prevented by using a vaccine that is given to a person who is not infected with the virus. For a B virus infection, the vaccine is given to a person, who is not infected with the virus and provides protection for the rest of his or her life.
“Therefore, I urge the public to get tested for hepatitis B, and for those who will not be diagnosed with hepatitis B virus will be offered the vaccine at low cost in government hospitals” she insisted.
The minister urged that the people of Tanzania and East Africa are at greater risk of contracting the disease, especially hepatitis B and C, than other types, namely A, D and E due to being infected with the B and C viruses which are very similar to those of HIV infection.
