Hepatitis Is the Test of Africa's Health Sovereignty
The Africa CDC has released a new operational toolkit to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and management of Hepatitis B across the continent. Dr. Jean Kaseya argues that addressing the high infection rates is a matter of health sovereignty and political implementation.
Why it matters
Improving healthcare infrastructure and local capacity is vital for Africa to reduce its disproportionate burden of global hepatitis infections.
By Dr Jean Kaseya, Director General, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) Today, Africa CDC releases the Operational Toolkit for the Prevention, Diagnosis and Management of Hepatitis B. It is a deliberately practical document. Treatment algorithms. Liver fibrosis assessment. Clinical decision support for a nurse in a district facility where the nearest specialist is hundreds of kilometres away. Developed with leading African hepatitis experts, it translates World Health Organization recommendations into guidance a health worker can apply in daily practice. We built it because the gap on this continent sits between what we know and what we do. Consider what we already know. Around 64 million Africans live with chronic hepatitis B. Our region accounts for 63 per cent of new hepatitis B infections worldwide. The virus killed an estimated 272,000 people here in 2022. Fewer than five in every hundred people infected have been screened.
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