MGK Healthcare organized community awareness and gave free hepatitis tests to mark World Hepatitis day. The event was held at th...
MGK Healthcare organized community awareness and gave free hepatitis tests to mark World Hepatitis day.
The event was held at the hospital premises in Kano on Saturday, July 30, 2022.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Hospital, Muhammad Garba, who is represented by the Chief Operating Officer, Pharm. Isma'il Usman told newsmen that they organized the event to raise awareness among the community on hepatitis, and also encourage them on the significance of testing and treatment. The organization conduct free hepatitis tests to offer a contributing hand in line with World Health Organization's plan of eradicating Hepatitis viral disease by 2030.
He said; “World Hepatitis Day is celebrated to commemorate the effort done in eradicating the disease and to face the impending challenges. 28th of July was earmarked to celebrate the day annually. Every year, World Health Organization sets a theme to mark the event. The theme for this year's event is "Bringing Hepatitis Care Closer to You".
Pharm Isma’il stated why they organized the event; “We see it as an occasion that will contribute in building a healthy society to ensure people are protected from contracting the disease. To test, screen and councell them for an appropriate measures of vaccination or clinical therapy for non reactive and reactive serum surface antigen participants respectively”.
He added that; “This is the intent that made us invite people to offer comprehensive awareness, provide free testing and councelling, he underlined.
He emphasized the number of people that benefited from the free test, where he said; “at least 131 people benefited from the free test today”.
Pharm Isma'il advised that there is a need for every person to undergo a Hepatitis test to ascertain his health status because the disease is a communicable disease that can be easily transmitted without knowing; “Hepatitis is a disease that many people are carriers but move asymptomatically at the replication stage of the disease. Statistics show that at least every 30 seconds a person is dying from a hepatitis-related illness”, he said.
“Our advice to the community is to be alert and never hesitate to visit any licenced healthcare facility closer to them for proper check-up.
He gave details about the classification of hepatitis and how it can be transmitted. He also highlighted the work that a liver does in the body system. “The liver is a vital organ that regulated a lot of activities in the body; processing food and storage, metabolisation of drugs via certain liver enzymes, and detoxification among other functions. When liver is infected or damaged, its functionality will be affected which will ultimately alter the normal body physiology.
He advised people to always visit hospital on time so that they can be tested and assessed to enhance detection and reduce the burden of acute disease and mitigate the incidences of it's progression to chronic disease, with resultant risk of liver cirrhosis and cancer. He asserted.
He also explained the services of the MGK Healthcare Hospital, where he said it is a multi-specialist hospital that performs various services; and has many general physicians and other specialists offering their expertise to both outpatients and inpatients.
He added that among their services, they have various units which include; General outpatients Clinic, Inpatient Clinic, Obstetrics & Gyenecology clinic, Cardiology, Gastroentrology, Neurology, ENT, Paediatric, General Surgery, pharmaceutical, Laboratory, radiology, orthopaedic and dental surgery clinic among others.
“We also offered private ambulance services for emergency cases to our facility or any other facility of choice”.
“We were also an accredited healthcare provider for National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and Kano state contributory Healthcare Management Agency (KASCHMA) programm. We also offered services to private insured clients through their Health Management Organizations (HMO) of their choice. Retainership programs with certain companies and individuals are also among the services we rendered, he reiterated.
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