Low public awareness responsible for Nigeria’s high hepatitis burden – expert

A medical expert, Mr Roberto Taboade of Roche Diagnostics, has attributed the high hepatitis burden in Nigeria to low public awareness, calling for more campaigns to drive diagnosis. While speaking during an online interview session with selected Nigerian journalists recently, the medical expert lamented that 90% of patients in Nigeria are undiagnosed. “Low public awareness […]

A medical expert, Mr Roberto Taboade of Roche Diagnostics, has attributed the high hepatitis burden in Nigeria to low public awareness, calling for more campaigns to drive diagnosis.

While speaking during an online interview session with selected Nigerian journalists recently, the medical expert lamented that 90% of patients in Nigeria are undiagnosed.

“Low public awareness is a key barrier,” he said, adding that “90% of patients in Nigeria are undiagnosed.”

“Another one is that the testing is usually not prioritised. Usually, treatment is prioritised at the expense of diagnostics, but again, without a diagnosis, you cannot treat all the people who are affected by the disease.”

He also identified stigma about being identified with hepatitis as deterring people from seeking testing.

Roberto, who said hepatitis imposes one of the highest burdens in Nigeria now, expressed delight that the government had developed a national strategic plan and is piloting hepatitis testing in some states.

“However, diagnosis and treatment rates are still far below global benchmarks,” he said, assuring that Roche Diagnostics would be part of efforts to drive these processes, especially in terms of expansion of screening access and better data tracking to accelerate the progress to reduce or eliminate hepatitis by 2030.

“We at Roche Diagnostics bring a diagnostic innovation and especially with our molecular instruments that can detect the virus even before the infection spreads, and we have several instruments already installed in Nigeria, mainly used for HIV, but that can also be used for screening of hepatitis,” he said.

Roberto said there’s a lot the company could do together with the Nigerian government to reach the goal of reducing or eliminating hepatitis by 2030.

The medical expert noted that to address the disconnect between health policies and practice, the government needed to increase funding for screening, diagnosis and treatment.