The Federal Government has been called upon to follow through on a pledge it made in 2016 and make the treatment of hepatitis affordable all over the country, in order to kick the illness out of the country.
The call was made by the Centre for Information and Development (CFID), recently in Jalingo, Taraba State, while briefing newsmen through its CEO Danjuma K. Adda.
Adda said Nigeria was one of the countries which signed up to eliminate the illness by 2030 but regretted that, almost 10 years after the pledge, no genuine measures have been put in place by the government to demonstrate its readiness to eliminate hepatitis from the country, based on the Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) three.
“Hepatitis is a silent killer that kills even more than HIV/AIDS and has more global burdens than even HIV/AIDS; yet, the Federal Government is treating it with kids’ gloves.
The lamented that there were no proper management systems and treatments were left in the hands of persons living with the disease. He went ahead to state that the centre was saddened by the fact that there is no government insurance or programme that provides treatment or diagnosis.
“It is disturbing that those living with the disease have continued to take money out of their salaries or businesses to be able to access treatment. We want the government to, as a matter of urgency, rise up to it responsibilities by making available to the people the much needed access to hepatitis treatments.
“We are telling the government ‘remember your pledge in 2016’. You signed the documents that you are going to eliminate hepatitis. So, it is the duty and responsibility of the government to do that to it citizens, because we are living in a country where people earn less than two dollars a day.”
“We are alarmed by the increasing incidence of the disease and, by this, we are reminding government of its obligations towards the citizens because the citizens’ health is a fundamental right of the people. It is not a privilege.”
Adda insisted that a lack of will was another issue and called on those paddling the affairs of government handle hepatitis just as they handle COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS are being handled.
