The Yorubas usually refer to the word hepatitis as “jẹ́ ẹ̀dọ, jẹ́ ẹ̀dọ”, a word literally interpreted as “eats the liver, eats the liver.” Interestingly, the phrase is not usually spoken as a single expression; it is repeated. In the Yoruba language, repetition is often more than the mere repetition of words; it can add emphasis and urgency, conveying the weight of a message that should not be ignored. Perhaps there is a lesson in this linguistic tradition for our approach to hepatitis today, and as we commemorate World Hepatitis Day, we borrow that same sense of urgency; not a call to fear, but a call to action.
The global theme for World Hepatitis Day 2026 is “Hepatitis: Let’s break it down.” This year’s campaign focuses on dismantling the systemic, social and financial barriers that hinder the elimination of the disease. But first, it is important to understand the disease and the damage it causes to the infected person.
Hepatitis is a medical term that means inflammation of the liver. The liver is a vital organ that processes nutrients, filters blood, and fights infections. When it becomes inflamed or damaged, its ability to function is severely impaired. While most people associate hepatitis exclusively with viruses, it can be caused by several different factors like heavy alcohol consumption, certain medications like acetaminophen overdose, and environmental toxins. There are five distinct hepatitis viruses, labelled ABCDE, and they spread in unique ways with varying degrees of severity.
Hepatitis A virus is spread through contaminated food and water and causes a short-term illness; most people recover fully with lifelong immunity, and it has an effective vaccine. Hepatitis B, on the other hand, spreads primarily through blood-to-blood contact and becomes a chronic infection. It is highly preventable with vaccination, but there is no permanent cure yet. Hepatitis C spreads just like B, but it is not vaccine-preventable; however, there are highly effective oral medications that fully cure it in 8 to 12 weeks. An unusual strain is the Hepatitis D virus; it is an incomplete virus that can only infect people who already have hepatitis B and then creates a dual infection that speeds up severe liver damage. Hepatitis E has a high mortality rate for pregnant women and is spread through contaminated water.
Perhaps the greatest challenge with the disease is that many people do not know they have it. A person can become infected and continue living their normal life for years without obvious symptoms, while the virus continues to cause inflammation and injury to the liver. Symptoms that appear after significant liver damage include tiredness, loss of appetite, dark urine, pale stools and jaundice. This is why screening remains one of the most powerful tools in the fight against Hepatitis.
The World Health Organization (WHO) chose the 2026 theme as a response to the climbing mortality rate and stalled treatment coverage. Despite the decline in new hepatitis infections due to the successful infant immunization programs in the last decade, 1.3 million people still die every year from chronic hepatitis B and C, and over 75% of these preventable deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
The tragedy here is not that we lack solutions, as evidenced by the vaccines and effective drugs widely available in the world today; it is the roadblocks that prevent these tools from reaching the people who need them the most. As a result, global conversation has shifted from simply creating awareness to breaking down the barriers that keep people from care.
For Nigeria, the urgency is particularly important. Nigeria has the third-highest hepatitis burden globally and faces the highest burden of hepatitis B virus in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the WHO, over 20 million Nigerians are currently living with hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, or both, with more than 80% of infected individuals entirely unaware of their status. The core action pillars of the 2026 campaign aim to fight the social discrimination and misinformation that keep people from seeking testing or sharing their status, to dismantle financial barriers, to reduce the high costs of diagnostic testing and vaccines, and to speed up the distribution of highly effective vaccines and oral treatments globally.
To significantly reduce the burden of this disease in LMICs like Nigeria, the government must implement practical steps rather than policy on paper. In line with the WHO’s theme, they must address the structural bottlenecks that keep diagnostics and treatments out of reach for ordinary citizens; we must do some “breaking down” on our own. Modelling after Egypt’s highly successful “100 million healthy lives” initiative, a mass-screening campaign can be launched in Nigeria, where testing becomes mandatory and a free add-on during routine health interactions, such as antenatal care visits for all pregnant women, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) orientation camps, and routine screenings for university admissions and public sector employment.
The overwhelming burden on tertiary and teaching hospitals in Nigeria renders Primary Health Centres dysfunctional. A patient has to travel to a major city with a tertiary hospital to see a specialist, get a viral load test, and receive prescriptions. “Breaking it down” will mean strengthening and decentralizing care to Primary Health Centres to make it logistically and financially possible for people in rural Nigeria to receive care. Rural centres should be stocked with rapid diagnostic test kits and community nurses, as well as general practitioners trained to manage uncomplicated cases of Hepatitis B and C viruses.
Individually, it is a great mistake to believe that hepatitis is someone else’s problem. It is not. The responsibility does not rest solely on the government. It is our collective duty to know our hepatitis status, embrace safe practices, reject stigma, and get vaccinated. Commendably, the current UIMSA administration is bringing screening and vaccination services directly to the Alexander brown hall. This demonstrates that public health interventions are most effective when they meet people where they are. Such programmes should be implemented across other halls of residence, and even across faculties and departments. This kind of grassroot action can lead to a measurable public health impact. The WHO has set an ambitious target to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030. If we are to achieve that target, we must do more than count the years; we must act to break it down.
