Hepatitis B causes 75% of liver cancer cases in Ghana -Experts
Dr. Eileen Akonobea Micah, President of the Ghana Association for the Study of Liver and Digestive Diseases (GASLIDD), stated at the launch of World Hepatitis Day and the inauguration of a National Technical Working Group in Accra that Hepatitis B infection accounts for about 75% of liver cancer cases in Ghana. She said Ghana continued to record one of the highest liver cancer burdens in Africa, with the disease claiming the lives of many people in their most productive years. The event was held on the theme: "Hepatitis Elimination for Everyone, Everywhere, Right Now."
The Global Cancer Observatory (GLOBOCAN) 2024 indicates that liver cancer is the second most common cancer among men in Ghana, after prostate cancer, and the fourth most common among women. Dr. Micah cited a 2021 study at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital which found that three out of every four liver cancer cases (75%) were linked to Hepatitis B infection over a three-year period. She expressed concern that many liver cancer patients were relatively young, with an average age of 45 years. She recounted the case of two brothers in their late twenties who died of liver cancer caused by Hepatitis B.
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Liver disease specialists in Ghana are highlighting the urgent need to decentralise treatment services for Hepatitis B, which accounts for a
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