The Kwara State government has inaugurated a comprehensive viral hepatitis elimination roadmap, reaffirming its commitment to eliminating the disease as a public health threat in the state by 2030.
The roadmap, unveiled in Ilorin on Tuesday and themed: “Let’s Break It Down” was designed to strengthen prevention, diagnosis, treatment, surveillance and public awareness of viral hepatitis across the state.
Speaking at the event, the state commissioner for Health, Dr Amina El-Imam, described the launch as a significant milestone in the state’s efforts to strengthen preventive healthcare and achieve universal health coverage.
She said the roadmap would serve as a strategic blueprint for ending viral hepatitis as a public health threat in Kwara by 2030, in line with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) global elimination targets.
“Viral hepatitis remains a silent killer in our communities. Recent data indicates that Nigeria accounts for approximately 15 per cent of the global burden of Hepatitis B, with an estimated 20 million Nigerians living with chronic Hepatitis B or C infection,” she explained.
El- Imam noted that thousands of people in Kwara, like in other parts of the country, could be living with the infection without knowing their status, putting them at risk of complications such as liver cirrhosis and liver cancer.
She counseled that the continued burden of the disease should not be viewed as a reason for despair but as a call for stronger and more coordinated action.
She explained that the roadmap was not a standalone document but an operational extension of the “Kwara Model” of health system strengthening, designed to align the state’s response with the WHO’s 2030 elimination targets.
She said the global targets include diagnosing 90 percent of people living with viral hepatitis and ensuring that 80 percent of those eligible for treatment receive it.
El-Imam assured that the state government would intensify screening programmes to determine the prevalence of viral hepatitis in the state and ensure that infected persons are identified and linked to appropriate care.
She also announced plans to aggressively scale up Hepatitis B birth-dose vaccination, noting that improved coverage of the vaccine remains a key priority in preventing mother-to-child transmission of the virus.
She disclosed the roadmap will integrate hepatitis screening and care into existing Primary Health Care (PHC) centres, Maternal and Child Health (MCH) services, and HIV/TB clinics.
She added that care would be decentralised through the state’s network of primary healthcare facilities (PHCs) and general hospitals to make services more accessible to residents.
The chairman of the technical working group, Prof. Abdulfatai Olokoba, said the committee developed the roadmap using available data and in line with the WHO template.
He expressed optimism that faithful implementation of the document would significantly reduce the burden of viral hepatitis in the state.
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