Some 750,000 people are infected with viral hepatitis in Cameroon through its A, B and C forms, a prevalence rate of nearly 10 percent of the country’s total population, according to statistics copied to APA on Tuesday by the Africa Regional Office of Epi -Centre.
Epi-Center Africa Regional Office, an independent body of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), has also reported a prevalence that has increased by around 5 percent in the last ten years.
Information obtained Tuesday at a regional workshop on this pandemic, reveal that prison environments are the most affected by the disease. In addition, there are nearly 10,000 deaths per year in Cameroon due to viral hepatitis, of which hepatitis B is the most prevalent.
According to MSF, the emphasis should be on sensitization, especially because of “the expensive cost of treatment,” so much so that “nobody is spared, because in Cameroon, 1 medical staff out of 10 is suffering from Hepatitis B.”
This situation is worrisome since “patients (who) seek health care are in contact with health care workers who carry the virus,” says Dr. Yap Boum, Regional Representative for Africa of Epi-Center.
Thus, more than 5 percent of the health personnel are affected in the northern region of the country, which is “favorable to the spread of the virus.”
The modes of contamination of hepatitis B are sexual or blood. MSF estimates at two billion, the number of people infected with the virus of which more than 370 million are chronic patients.
MBOG/odl/cat/fss/abj/APA