Kwara Launches Hepatitis Elimination Roadmap, Targets Public Health Threat-Free Status by 2030

The Kwara State Government has inaugurated a comprehensive viral hepatitis elimination roadmap, reaffirming its commitment to eliminating the disease as a public health threat within the state by 2030.

The roadmap, unveiled in Ilorin under the theme "Let's Break It Down," is designed to strengthen prevention, diagnosis, treatment, surveillance, and public awareness of viral hepatitis across Kwara State, providing a structured framework for tackling a disease officials describe as widely underdiagnosed and often silently progressive.

Speaking at the launch, Kwara State Commissioner for Health, Dr Amina El-Imam, described the rollout as a major milestone in the state's broader efforts to strengthen preventive healthcare and work toward universal health coverage. She explained that the roadmap would serve as a strategic blueprint guiding the state's response to viral hepatitis in line with the World Health Organisation's (WHO) global elimination targets for 2030.

Highlighting the scale of the disease burden, El-Imam noted that Nigeria accounts for approximately 15 per cent of the global burden of Hepatitis B, with an estimated 20 million Nigerians currently living with chronic Hepatitis B or C infection. "Viral hepatitis remains a silent killer in our communities," she said, describing the disease's tendency to progress undetected for years before causing serious complications.

According to El-Imam, thousands of residents across Kwara State, much like in other parts of the country, could be living with the infection without knowing their status, placing them at significant risk of long-term complications, including liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. She urged residents not to view the continued burden of the disease as a cause for despair, but rather as a call for stronger, more coordinated public health action at both the state and community levels.

The commissioner explained that the newly launched roadmap is not intended as a standalone policy document, but rather as an operational extension of the broader "Kwara Model" of health system strengthening, an approach the state has used to align its healthcare interventions with international best practice and global elimination targets. She noted that the global WHO targets underpinning the roadmap include diagnosing 90 per cent of people living with viral hepatitis and ensuring that a significant proportion of those diagnosed receive appropriate treatment, benchmarks Kwara's roadmap is now structured to work toward at the state level.

The hepatitis elimination roadmap builds on earlier awareness efforts already underway in the state. Weeks prior to the roadmap's formal launch, the Kwara State University Teaching Hospital (KWASUTH), in partnership with the Kwara State Ministry of Health, held a public sensitisation campaign at the Emir's Palace in Ilorin as part of activities marking World Hepatitis Day 2026, under the same "Let's Break It Down" theme. Speaking at that earlier event, KWASUTH's Chief Medical Director, Dr Bola Abdulkadir, described hepatitis as a disease that often progresses unnoticed but remains both preventable and manageable when detected early, stressing that regular screening, vaccination, and early treatment are essential to reducing complications such as liver cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Also speaking at the earlier sensitisation event, the Hepatitis Desk Officer at the Kwara State Ministry of Health, Mrs Alaya Gbemisola, urged residents to take advantage of available testing and vaccination services, stressing that creating awareness, encouraging early diagnosis, and ensuring access to treatment remain critical steps toward eliminating viral hepatitis within the state. Health education on the disease's causes, symptoms, modes of transmission, prevention, and management was also provided to participants at that earlier event by Dr Bababode Bojuwoye of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH).

Viral hepatitis, an infection of the liver caused by several distinct viruses, remains one of the more significant yet often overlooked public health burdens across Nigeria and much of the African continent. Left undiagnosed and untreated, chronic infection can progress silently over years before manifesting as severe, often fatal, liver disease, making early detection and sustained public awareness central to any effective elimination strategy.

With the newly unveiled roadmap now formally in place, attention in Kwara State is expected to shift toward implementation, as health authorities work to translate the framework's prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and surveillance priorities into measurable progress toward the state's stated 2030 elimination target, part of a broader, nationwide push to bring Nigeria's viral hepatitis burden in line with global public health goals.