A report on one of the headlines of the punch newspaper, July 27, 2016 states that 20 million Nigerians are living with hepatitis B infection. This translates to about 10% average national prevalence, since the population of Nigeria is about 200 million. The burden of viral hepatitis is a public health threat in many areas of the world, according to the world health organisation (WHO).
What is Hepatitis B?
Hepatitis B infection is caused by the hepatitis b virus (HbV) and is one of five (5) types of hepatitis known; A, B, C,D & E. The infectious disease (HBV) attacks the liver causing both acute and chronic forms. It is important to note that chronic HBV infection is a potential risk factor for cancer of the liver.
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Epidemiology
The global burden of hepatitis b infection is huge. World Health Organisation (WHO) global hepatitis report, 2017 states that 257 million persons are living with HBV infection. Nigeria alone, with 20 million infected people contributes about 7.8% to the global burden.
Mode of Transmission
There are five (5) modes of transmission, oftentimes using blood as the main vehicle and other body fluids such as semen and saliva.
- Perinatal transmission (from an infected mother to her unborn child)
- Blood transfusion, infected blood and blood products
- Unprotected sexual intercourse
- Tattoo and other blood letting cultural practices (e.g female genital cutting A.K.A circumcision, facial mutilation for tribal marks,
- Injection drug use (IDU)
Tatooing is a cultural practice in Western and Southern and North Central Nigeria.
Getting facial marks through the process of mutilation using razor blades is a common practice in Western Nigeria and some parts of North central. These tribal marks as they are sometimes called is done for identification of clan of the one who gets the marks.
The process of scarification which always involves blood letting and very disturbing can be viewed here.
In Southern Nigeria, Esan tribe of Edo State for instance, people receive tribal marks /''ude'' as it is called for healing purposes from disease conditions.
How many Nigerians have stopped to think that these cultural practices carried out for right or wrong reasons expose themselves and their generations yet unborn to HBV infection?
Join in the #showyourface and #nohep campaign now to eliminate hepatitis. Below is a photo of my face in the #showyourface campaign. It is pinned to my twitter page. Let's all show our faces.
Please, reblog/resteem and share post . Everyone deserves good health.
NOTE: I found the research article below online today (03/08/2017) that is very relevant to my claim in this blog post.
Culture is one thing among others that refuse to die after civilization. Many people have even rationalised some barbaric ways of life. Education has helped stopped some of these barbaric way of doing things. We can only keep enlightening people and hope this things stop now. One can only pity those whose lives were cut short by what they think is trending! #SpeakOut
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Excellent submission! Education and enlightenment of the people is the way to go. I lost 2 very close relatives to hepatitis, so I can relate to the whole issue of hepatitis. Besides my grandma has this marking on her stomach and I believe that was how it was transmitted to some of her children. My mother, some of my siblings and I have had acute hepatitis. This is how it goes from generation to generation, unless something is done about it, especially to stop mother to child transmission of HBV. Remember to join in the campaign. My face is already on the general board of #showyourface and I have shared same photo on facebook and twitter.
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yeah, that's right, but that's himself culture, :)
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Unfortunately so. I wish this kind of culture could change overnight, then we'll be better for it. Thanks for stopping by @amaliatul. Steem on!
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I don't know but I always find these tribal marks to be very cool! ;-)
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@cryptoconfused Really? Well, some might look cool. However, the consequences of getting those marks can be dire. Twenty (20) million Nigerians infected with hepatitis B as at 2016 is quite alarming and for me very disturbing. A five percent (5%) prevalence rate of an infection in epidemiology is usually taken very seriously. Imagine 10% prevalence rate! Thanks for your support.
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According to your there are 5 modes of transmission. I'm curious to know the % of cases of HB that tribal tatooing actually contributes to. Maybe what is needed is safety measures to prevent the spread of HB and not the seizing of the tribal totooing practices altogether.
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Yes, there are an elaborated 5 modes of transmission as I stated. Since, I haven't done any research to find out the %tage of HBV cases that tatooing contributed to, I wouldn't be able to provide answers. However, from my experience of working with people living with HIV/AIDS for almost 2 decades now, I assume that percentage transmission through this means might be between 5 to 10%. This is a potential research topic! I absolutely agree with you on safety measures. The best one out there is HBV vaccine, which not many have access to.
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That's really a huge number of people suffering from hepatitis B in Nigeria @maryfavour! It's kinda scary I would say!
It's a shame that the clans continue these practice despite all this!
I hope this situation get better soon!
Sad!
@progressivechef
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Thanks for taking time to read my post, @progressivechef. Twenty (20) million Nigerians living with HBV infection is huge and scary like you've rightly stated. We are talking about not less than 10% of our population. Yes, it's a shame that this facial, stomach and even female genital mutilation/cutting is still practiced in some parts of Nigeria.
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Say in the times of our fathers this practise was done in ignorance to the implication of their actions, by the way we live in totally different times, customs and belief relatively is sideways, i can't argue for or against but, i know for sure that based on their believes back then there where other practices they engaged in that establishes a balance to the communnial life back then if not, the clans with this practice would have experienced a significant record of hepatitis rate down their generation up to the present generation. However, lets say that was then when hepatitis is not main stream, how do you relate with the present day craze for body tattoes? let me not preempt the series......looking forward to more reads from you.
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Thank you, @djuvantebit, for taking time to read and comment on this post. I'm glad that you understand my view. Research also has reported that this traditional practice of facial and stomach markings/tatoo has partly led to the transmission of hepatitis b infection from one generation to another. The issue you are raising now of the craze for body tattoos is one of great concern to me. My take on the issue is that if great care is not taken by those who get the tattos and those who totto them, they'll all get infected with HBV and we'll still be running around the same viscous circle.
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yeah!my thoughts! exactly
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its going to be a world war if anybody should give my kids tribal marks. this virus is deadly and it need to be eradicated.
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Please, let it be world war 3 (WW3) as you have stated, especially now that you are well informed of the role and likely negative impact of those tribal marks. Better than a WW3, though, would be to educate/enlighten the ignorant people who perpetrate this act of scarifying people through a blood letting procedure of the likely dangers of their action.
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shaking my head. peaceful WW3
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It is sad to see a peoples culture cause the result of pain and suffering on their own people. What steps are being taken by tribes in Nigeria to reduce the risk of Hepatitis B so they can still retain their culture of getting triable tattoos? With such a large percentage of the worlds, HBV populations being isolated to one region I hope there a lot of organizations are working together to reduce the risk.
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It's really sad, @enjar. The major challenge here is ignorance. Well, I wouldn't really say that tribes are taking action to reduce risk of HBV infection per se, but the government through vaccination. The much I know about HBV vaccines n Nigeria is that they are supplied under global vaccine alliance GAVI scheme and are given to children. Not quite sure if there are a lot of organizations working to reduce risk. We are in dire need of more people who will engage communities in public health education and encourage them to vaccinate their children. I really appreciate your contribution. Keep the steem fire burning!
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Would it be a fair assessment to say the population from Nigeria and other places that are dealing with this issue is starting to increase on Steemit? I think I have seen a few now if I’m not mistaken. I’m not sure if the people who use this site are also once who would go out and research this kind of thing on their own?
The point I’m getting to is will this topic be a reoccurring on your blog spot? Maybe something monthly? Might be a way to help increase awareness of this issues. You are a very wonderful and positive influence in the community.
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Oh great! I would like to see other people in steemit and beyond participate in the public health enlightenment campaign on hepatitis B (HBV) and even hepatitis C (HCV) and collaborate with them. Although, hepatitis b infection is not my research area,I will try my best possible to feature it in my blog at least once monthly, as you have suggested. My area of research is HIV/AIDS and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Thank you for giving me the idea to do a monthly campaign on my blog regarding the issue of hepatitis b. I appreciate your kind words too.
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