By Kadiatu Sankoh
On Friday 8th December 2023, during a meeting held at the new City Council Hall, the Ministry of Health, in partnership with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the World Health Organization, officially launched the National Hepatitis Policy and Strategy.
Speaking at the ceremony, Dr. Sulaiman Lakoh mentioned that the National Hepatitis Policy 2023 and the National Viral Hepatitis strategic plan 2024-2030, comes with four ambitions to strengthen the health system’s capacity to deliver hepatitis services and how advocacy and social mobilization on the disease will reduce mobility and mortality caused, and reduce the incidence for viral hepatitis to 50% by 2030.
These two documents are among other things that will help to reduce incidents of viral Hepatitis to 50% by 2030.
During his presentation, Dr. Lakoh said that Hepatitis is a condition caused by inflammation of the tissue. Studies indicate that Globally, there are 296 billion people living with Hepatitis B, and about 58 million people world wide are living with Hepatitis C. Every year 1.5 million people die from the complications of viral Hepatitis, including liver cancer. But the most common one in Sierra Leone is Hepatitis B, with a prevalence of 13.8%.
Chinese Ambassador, His Excellency Wang Qing, noted that these two documents were steps towards ensuring universal health coverage and consolidating human capital development. The Reason for their interventions in the health sector is to support Sierra Leone in the fight against Hepatitis, noting that they have been helping in the fight against Ebola and COVID-19, and now they are going to fight harder against Viral Hepatitis, Cervical cancer and others, stressing that they are always ready to help.
Acting Minister of Health, Charles Senessie, said that the documents signal a new age of the significant challenges that have cast their shadows over public health, but is optimistic that the policy and strategic plan have brought hope to ensure that the disease is eliminated by 2023.
The National Viral Hepatitis policy and strategy is a combination of rigorous work, extensive research and collaborating effort. It is a road map designed to guide us through the complexities of hepatitis prevention. At the primary level, it prevents contact between the virus and humans, while the secondary includes those that are already infected, preventing them from getting healed, and the Tertiary form is wherein they try to rehabilitate and increase the quality of life.