Over 20 million Nigerians are living with Hepatitis B and C, and 80% of those who have the disease do not even know.
This was according to a statistic disclosed by Professor Jesse Otegbayo, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan.
Prof. Otegbayo was delivering the 548th inaugural lecture of University of Ibadan (UI), held at Trenchard Hall of the institution, when he said this.
During the lecture titled, “The human workhorse and microbial afflictions: Hepatitis B, its fatal sting, and the tragic trajectory,” the CMD said the liver was the powerhouse of the body because it plays crucial roles in food metabolism and drug detoxification.
In his words, “Hepatitis B virus (HBV) 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 to 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.
“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.”
Prof. Otegbayo ended by stating that the transmission of the HBV can be vertical and can be horizontal. He clarified that vertical transmission is from mother to child, while horizontal transmission is from person to person.