Many people are dying from hepatitis B and C without knowing what to do.
But, Chairman, Research Institute of Traditional and Alternative Medicine (RITAM), Otunba Olajuwon Okubena, said there is no cause for alarm as hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver, can be treated with traditional medicine.
According to him, “Many of the deadly diseases which have defied orthodox solutions can be taken care of using traditional medicine.”
Hepatitis problem, he said, has assumed a big dimension, which is why the World Health Organisation (WHO) has set aside a day every year to commemorate it.
“The condition can be self-limiting or can progress to fibrosis (scarring), cirrhosis or liver cancer,” he said.
Quoting Wikipedia, he said, the World Hepatitis Day (WHD) aims to raise global awareness of hepatitis – a group of infectious diseases known as Hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E.
The day, he said, is to encourage prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
Hepatitis, he said, affects many people across the world, causing acute and chronic disease and killing close to 1.4 million people every year.
He said about 500 million people worldwide are living with either hepatitis B or hepatitis C.
“If left untreated and unmanaged, hepatitis B or C can lead to advanced liver scarring (cirrhosis) and other complications, including liver cancer or liver failure,” he said.
Okubena said people should worry about hepatitis than contracting AIDS, saying 1.5 million people across the world die from either hepatitis B or C faster than they would from HIV and AIDS.
He said many research works have been done on the disease, especially to determine its epidemiology, transmission and diagnostic investigations, as well as complications and control.
He said it is clear that there is no known cure for the disease, adding that traditional medicine can come to the rescue of people troubled by hepatitis.
“Although, still going through verification, a herbal drug known as Hepacare has been found to be helpful,” he said.
He said formal clinical trials is being considered in collaboration with secondary health facility in Minna, Niger State, adding that the cost of investigation is stumbling block because it is high and the trials have to be suspended.
He said the product is already gaining acceptance, adding that a professor of virology at the Lagos State University (LASUTH) did some sort of investigation with a team of scientists.
He said the scientist’s conclusion on the preparation is a source of encouragement as he described the product as very efficacious, adding that the results have since been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
The product, he said, was beneficial in the prevention of CCl4-induced hepatocellular injury, possibly by scavenging reactive free radicals, and boosting endogenous antioxidant systems.
He urged the Federal Government to do more about traditional medicine in line with the directives of the WHO and the African Union (AU).
Many countries, Okubena said, have implemented the directives but unfortunately, the National Assembly has not even passed the law that would establish the legal framework.
