Find The Missing Millions on World Hepatitis Day: Over
180 children screened at Ebute Ilaje Community, Lagos
By Aisha Oladipo, Mutiu Ajibola, and Zaynab Salahudeen
July 28, 2020
Millions of people around the world are living with the viral hepatitis disease and they are unaware. To raise global awareness of hepatitis, a day tagged “World hepatitis Day” has been dedicated to it, which is the 28th of July every year.
In commemoration with this year's World Hepatitis Day, The NeoChild Initiative (TNCI), in collaboration with partners - NeoChild Care, Doci Health Care, Communeating, Smile With Me, SchoolKits Limited, Fola David Foundation, Health Drive - and crowdfunding from our friends and family, held a health outreach at Ebute Ilaje Community, Bariga, Lagos.
The outreach started at 9am with the inhabitants of the community registering appropriately. To maintain adequate social distancing, participants were attended to in small batches. A health talk session on hepatitis was given, where attendees were educated on the cause, symptoms, and prevention of hepatitis. Other aspects of the outreach included hand-washing sessions and hepatitis B screening. Every child that participated was given a nosemask and the prevention strategies against COVID-19 were emphasized.
The community of Ebute Ilaje didn't fail to express their gratitude after the outreach ended. "I just want to say thank you to TNCI for what they have done, for the society and for the (Hepatitis) test", one of the tested children - Timileyin Omoseun, beamed. Speaking with one of the mothers of our beneficiaries, she made it known that she wasn't aware of how deadly the virus can be until we brought the outreach to their doorstep. She further explains that she'll be much appreciative if this program can be extended to more areas in Lagos State and beyond.
188 children were screened for Hepatitis B and a total of 160 relief packages were given to the members of Ilaje community. Two Children tested positive for Hepatitis B and they were referred to the nearest Primary Health centre