Offinso North MP Calls for Mass Testing, Stronger Surveillance to Fight Hepatitis
Parliament House, Accra. Member of Parliament for Offinso North, Hon. Dr. Fred Kyei Asamoah, has delivered a powerful statement on the floor of Parliament to mark World Hepatitis Day, calling for urgent national action to prevent, detect and control hepatitis in Ghana.
World Hepatitis Day is observed globally on July 28 each year to raise awareness about viral hepatitis, a silent killer that causes severe liver disease, including cirrhosis and liver cancer.
Contributing to the commemoration in Parliament, Dr. Kyei Asamoah, who is the only pharmacist in the Ninth Parliament of the Fourth Republic, warned that hepatitis continues to pose a major public health threat because most infected persons remain undiagnosed until complications set in. 5490
He emphasized three critical pillars in the fight against the disease:
1. Strengthened Surveillance: The MP called on the Ghana Health Service and the Ministry of Health to improve data collection and disease tracking to better understand the burden of Hepatitis B and C, which affects about 9% and 2.3% of Ghana’s population respectively according to WHO estimates.
2. Sustained Public Education: He urged government and stakeholders to intensify community-level education to combat misinformation, stigma and discrimination against persons living with hepatitis, and to promote preventive behaviors.
3. Mass Testing and Screening:Dr. Kyei Asamoah stressed that knowing one’s status is key to early detection and treatment. He advocated for nationwide mass testing, inclusion of hepatitis screening at the community level, and integration of testing into routine primary healthcare and maternal health services.
“A lot of people are not aware of their hepatitis status. They mostly go undetected due to an absence of symptoms until it is too late,” he noted, echoing calls from health advocates for frequent testing and vaccination.
The Offinso North legislator, who assumed office on January 7, 2025 on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), said Ghana cannot achieve Universal Health Coverage while hepatitis treatment remains out of reach for many. 49f3
He therefore appealed to Parliament, the Ministry of Health and the National Health Insurance Authority to consider including hepatitis treatment under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), subsidizing birth-dose vaccines, and establishing sustainable domestic financing such as the Ghana Liver Hepatitis Fund.
Hon. Dr. Kyei Asamoah, a trained pharmacist with a Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Colorado, Denver, reaffirmed his commitment to leveraging his professional expertise to champion evidence-based health policies in Parliament.
He concluded by urging Ghanaians to avoid risky practices such as unsafe sexual behaviour, unscreened blood transfusion and harmful traditional practices, and to take advantage of free screening and vaccination exercises.
