Africa: Hepatitis Is the Test of Africa's Health Sovereignty

What the report says

AllAfrica republished a Health-e opinion article by Dr Jean Kaseya, director general of Africa CDC, arguing that hepatitis prevention and treatment is a practical test of Africa’s health sovereignty agenda. The piece says Africa CDC this week released an Operational Toolkit for the Prevention, Diagnosis and Management of Hepatitis B, designed to turn World Health Organization guidance into day-to-day clinical support for health workers, including nurses in district facilities far from specialists.

Kaseya cites a wide gap between available tools and delivery. According to the article, about 64 million Africans have chronic hepatitis B, the continent accounts for 63% of new global infections, and hepatitis B killed an estimated 272,000 people in Africa in 2022. It also says fewer than 5% of infected people have been screened, fewer than 1% receive treatment, and only 18% of African newborns get the hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth, despite that dose preventing nearly all mother-to-child transmission.

The article frames the issue against declining development aid and less predictable geopolitics, saying African countries need to finance, produce and prioritize more of their own health responses while still working with partners. Kaseya points to the African Union’s 2020 Cairo Declaration on Viral Hepatitis, Egypt’s large-scale hepatitis C screening campaign, Rwanda’s free nationwide hepatitis C treatment, and Uganda’s domestic funding for hepatitis B services as examples of political commitment paired with funding.

Kaseya calls for more domestic and innovative financing, stronger local manufacturing and pooled procurement, integration of hepatitis services into primary care and digital systems, deeper regional cooperation, and more public awareness. The opinion argues that proven and relatively affordable interventions make hepatitis an immediate measure of whether Africa can organize health systems around prevention, diagnosis and treatment.