Know your Hepatitis B status campaign – NiMSA Nigeria

Name of the activity: Know your Hepatitis B status campaign

Country/NMO: NiMSA Nigeria

Program: Communicable Diseases

Contact information: contact [email protected] to get in touch with the Activity Coordinator

Type of the activity: First-time Activity

Category: Campaign

Focus area: Prevention of Communicable Diseases | Hepatitis, Preventable Diseases, Work to increase rate of Vaccination

Sustainable Development Goals addressed: SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being)

Problem statement:

Five strains of the virus: HAV,HBV,HCV,HDV and HEV are responsible for viral hepatitis; an inflammation of the liver due to a viral infection. Only HBV and HDV cause chronic hepatitis, which can lead to liver cirrhosis and primary liver cancer.

Nigeria, a tropical country, is highly endemic for HBV infection and about 75% of its population is likely to have been exposed to the virus over their lifetime. A study found the prevalence of HBV in the country to be 8.1% of the population.

Target groups:

• General population
• Medical students
• Healthcare Students
• Other Students
• Doctors
• Other health professionals
• Children
• Youth
• Women

Beneficiaries:

• General population
• Medical students
• Other Students
• Doctors
• Other health professionals
• Children
• Youth
• Women
• Elderly people

Objectives:

1. To increase awareness amongst the general public and within the various MSA’s under NiMSA about HBV
2. Don branded shirts and caps to further increase awareness on World Hepatitis B day (28th July 2022).
3. Post infographics about HBV on all our social media platforms
4. Educate at least 450 people about what HBV entails
5. To screen at least 300 community members of the six geopolitical zones for Hepatitis B making a total of about 1800 people.
6. Receive approval from the community leaders to execute our project.
7. Conduct communal sensitization by various MSA’s in areas of high prevalence.
8. Increase the number of community members in Nigeria that know their HPV status by at least 1,200.
9. To ensure patients who test positive are well attended to at the primary health centre closest to them.
10. Reach an agreement with the primary health centre in the community to offer counselling services to patients referred by us

Indicators of Success:

1. Have at least 500 impressions on our various social media platforms.
2. Distribute at least 65% of infographics, videos and graphics to the public through social media.
3. 60% of the public would have a positive attitude towards the screening services.
4. At least, 90% of the target reach in each of the six geopolitical zones.

e.90% of positive patients screened by us would receive counselling through our referral network

Methodology:

Planning Phase;

-Conduct online meetings to draft a plan of action for the project.

-Contact potential sponsors, donors and collaborators.

-Have virtual/physical meetings with potential sponsors, donors and collaborators.

-Contact Community leaders in selected communities.

-Visit matrons/chief medical officers of primary health care centres in selected communities to discuss counselling of positive patients.  

-Conclude agreements with all parties involved.

Implementation Phase;

-Release media to create awareness of HBV and its relation to cancer on all social media platforms.

-Create awareness on the HBV screening project using media stated in ‘a’ above

-Organize and conduct HBV screening and make referrals for counselling in the selected regions.

Evaluation and Report Phase;

-Monitor impressions across social media.

-Contact the primary health care centres to get reports from them

-Collate reports from all the locations into a comprehensive report for the secretariat and sponsors.

Plans for evaluation:

Members of the project planning committee would make use of data from all parties mentioned in the evaluation and report phase to evaluate the success of the program.

The program is aimed at educating communities together with market men and women on the occurrence of Hepatitis B, how it can be prevented, how to be tested, and how to treat it if found positive after screening.

External collaborations:

We collaborated with:

• Emzor pharmaceutical companies
• Codix pharmaceutical company

These are renowned pharmaceutical companies in Nigeria who are interested in projects like this