A Non-Governmental organisation in Nigeria known as Center for Initiative and Development CFID, has called on government at all levels to put measures to end mother- to- child transmission of Hepatitis disease which has been on the increase in the country.
The Executive Director of the organisation Mr. Adda Danjuma made the call in an interview with Voice of Nigeria in Taraba State, North-east Nigeria, as part of activity to commemorate this year’s International Day for Non-Governmental Organisation, NGOs marked every 27th February.
He said more women especially those in the rural communities are at the risk of transmitting hepatitis disease to their children due to lack of early diagnosis and treatment.
“Most of them don’t even go to the hospital during pregnancy and some of them patronise local birth attendants without proper care,” he said.
Mr Adda noted that only early diagnosis of the hepatitis disease could help prevent mother to child transmission of the hepatitis disease.
Partnership
He called on government at all levels to partner with the relevant civil society organisations to carry out activities that could lead to early diagnosis and treatment of the hepatitis disease especially among the rural dwellers.
“We at Center for Initiative and Development, CFID, have been carrying out free diagnosis for selected communities in Taraba State and six other states in Nigeria and we were shocked by the high number of pregnant women who have the disease but are not aware of it because they have not been tested, so we are calling for more partnership to scale up our outreach for early diagnosis and treatment so we can stop the possible transmission of Hepatitis from mother to child,” Mr Adda stressed.
The Executive Director also stated that in other advanced countries, measures have been put in place to end mother-to-child transmission of Hepatitis through early diagnosis and treatment but Nigeria is yet to get to that stage as there are no government programmes for the management of Hepatitis.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
