An expert, Prof. G. Choudhuri MD, during the recently held 4th Guest Lecture webinar organized by Skyline University Nigeria (SUN) has called on the public to tie up to eliminate the threat of Chronic Viral Hepatitis. The webinar with the theme “Chronic Viral Hepatitis: Present Status and Future Challenges” was held to mark World Hepatitis Day (WHD), observed each year to raise awareness of viral hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver that causes severe liver disease.
Prof. Choundhuri who made this call amongst others on Wednesday, 28th July, 2021 stated that a Hepatitis-Free future is possible when the world leaders come together to fight the disease. “While the process to eliminate the threat of hepatitis is in the pipeline, education and enlightenment campaigns should be promoted all over the world to equip people with the knowledge of the disease and how they can act”, he said.
According to him, Viral Hepatitis is among the top four global infectious disease killers alongside tuberculosis, malaria and HIV. He added that the World Health Organization (WHO), has recorded over 354 million people worldwide living with chronic hepatitis. Over 8000 new infections of hepatitis B and C occur every day and more than one million deaths from advanced liver disease and liver cancer occur every year.
Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor of SUN, Professor Ajith Kumar V.V. while making his remarks, stated that creating awareness on viral hepatitis is a good initiative. He enjoined the participants to take special care to create more awareness about the disease to reach out to the immediate community. He thanked the Guest speaker for taking time to speak to the students of the university about the danger posed by the disease.
The event which was jointly organized by Dr. Sanjoy Kumar Pal, a Professor of Biology & Micro-Biology in SUN, Ms. Nafisa Inuwa, the University’s Event Coordinator and Mr. Saka Shehu, the Corporate Affairs Supervisor, was attended by over 280 participants, including students, members of the university community, and people who joined the event from an online platform.