WORLD HEPATITIS DAY 2023 – MEDICAL OUTREACH

HEPMAL WHD 2023 MEDICAL OUTREACH IN PICTURES.

This year, the HEPMAL team partnered with the Okyeame Kwame (OK) Foundation and MDS Lancet Laboratories in the commemoration of WHD. The global themes were “We’re not waiting” and “One Life, One Liver”, to accelerate viral hepatitis elimination efforts and the need for testing and treatment. This was to emphasize the outcomes of viral hepatitis especially liver damage and cancers and the urgent need to test and then proceed to vaccination or treatment depending on the test outcome.

The La-Nkwantanang-Madina Municipality (LaNMMA) was selected for the medical outreach; hence the event was organized in collaboration with medical staff from the LaNMMA Health Directorate, the Madina Polyclinic and friends from the Legon Hospital Liver Clinic. The medical outreach took place at the Madina STC Station on the 28th of July 2023.

As usual, preparations begun some months prior to the set date, to fully gather the necessary resources to make the programme a success and create awareness in anticipation towards the day. The medical outreach consisted of free screening for hepatitis B and C, haemoglobin and malaria, free hepatitis B vaccination, as well as counselling and offer of care for those who tested positive, as was done in the previous year’s exercise.

There was a comprehensive plan of the sequence of activities. Various stations were set up; registration, consenting, sampling point, testing point, results and vaccination. Participants were also taken through a questionnaire to assess their prior risk of hepatitis exposure. All these stations were effortlessly managed by collaborative work between the HEPMAL and MDS Lancet teams, and volunteers from the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), together with the healthcare professionals present. Okyeame Kwame, a renowned Ghanaian rapper and hepatitis ambassador was also at the event together with some friends: medical doctors and Ghanaian nurses from the diaspora. The programme run smoothly from 9 am to 5 pm.

Out of a total of 439 individuals screened for hepatitis B, 363 persons without detectable protective antibodies received the first shot of the vaccine. These will be contacted by the HEPMAL screening team to receive their second shots after a month and for the final shots after 6 months. A total of 40 individuals tested positive for hepatitis B surface antigen and were counselled and referred for further assessment and management. There were 5 records of positive tests for hepatitis C.

This year’s hepatitis screening and awareness campaign was funded by a seed amount from the EDCTP2-funded HEPMAL project, and partners: MDS Lancet and OK Foundation, as well as donations in cash and kind through a fundraising drive by the HEPMAL project team. Companies and institutions that supported include the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), East Cantonments Pharmacy Ltd., Crescent Chemist Ltd., AngloGold Ashanti, the Ghana Chamber of Mines, and one benevolent individual (a parent of one of the volunteers).