Rwandans have been urged to use protection not only to prevent themselves from catching HIV but also form Hepatitis B, C which is also a sexually transmitted disease.Hepatitis injures the liver with inflammation of the liver cells. Acute hepatitis lasts under six months, while chronic hepatitis lasts longer.In an interview with The New Times, Dr Sabin Nsanzimana, the Coordinator of HIV and STI’s care and treatment in the Ministry of Health, said that according to a recent survey that was carried out from 13 sites in Rwanda, 3.5 per cent people were infected with Hepatitis B and 2.6 percent infected with Hepatitis C.He noted that the virus spreads the same way as HIV/AIDS does and highlighted that treatment is extremely expensive.“Treatment for Hepatitis costs Rwf250, 000 every week yet in order for it to be effective, it has to be taken for over eight weeks. This disease is among the leading causes of cancer as well so public should be careful and use protection,” he said.Nsanzimana presented these findings along with information from a behavioural surveillance survey among truck drivers and female sex workers.According to the 2006 survey, 81 percent of truck drivers reported having sexual relations with sex workers and in the latest statistics, 57 percent of truck drivers who were tested for HIV Have had sex with a commercial sex partner with 53 percent of them using condoms.Recent statistics show that condoms were mostly used by truck drivers in the age group of 15-24, especially with one year experience as truck drivers.Doctor Nsanzimana noted that most of these high risk groups are knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS although majority don’t know about Hepatitis.Hepatitis B and C account for almost 80 percent of all liver cancer cases, according to World Health Organization (WHO). An estimated 500 million people experience chronic illness from their infection with hepatitis; it is a major cause of liver cancer and liver cirrhosis.In a press statement, WHO called on governments to strengthen efforts to fight viral hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver that kills about one million people every year.People can get hepatitis from either infected bodily fluids or contaminated food and water depending on the type of hepatitis.
