An estimated three million Ghanaians are living with Hepatitis B, and about 500,000 have Hepatitis C, even though many do not know it.
Hepatitis B and C can be in the body for years without symptoms while slowly damaging the liver.
By the time a person feels sick, the damage is often advanced
One per cent is the proportion of people living with chronic Hepatitis B in Ghana who have been diagnosed.
Less than one per cent are on treatment.
For Hepatitis C, only nine per cent have been diagnosed. Fewer than one per cent are receiving treatment.
Those figures were released yesterday by the Programme Manager of the National Viral Hepatitis Control Programme, Dr John Gerald Adiiboka, during the commemoration of World Hepatitis Day 2026 in Accra.
They are not just numbers.
They represent millions of Ghanaians living with a silent killer.
The consequence is severe.
Chronic Hepatitis B and C are leading causes of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer.
Liver cancer is now the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in Ghana and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths.
This is preventable. Hepatitis B can be prevented by vaccination and managed with treatment.
Hepatitis C can be cured with highly effective medicines.
Yet, we are far off track. Stigma keeps people away from testing.
Many Ghanaians still associate hepatitis with promiscuity or dirty living.
The WHO roadmap is clear: by 2030, 90 per cent of people living with chronic Hepatitis B and C should be diagnosed, and 80 per cent of those diagnosed should be on treatment.
Ghana’s current figures — one per cent diagnosed for Hepatitis B, 9 per cent for Hepatitis C, and less than one per cent on treatment for both show a huge gap.
The good news is that Ghana has already shown what political will can do. Infant Hepatitis B vaccination coverage is about 95 per cent, exceeding WHO’s 90 per cent target.
That is a public health success story.
It means most children born today are protected.
But vaccination alone will not help the 3.5 million adults already infected.
For them, we need testing and treatment.
We need to expand screening massively.
We cannot treat what we do not know.
The government, with support from partners, must roll out free or heavily subsidised testing in communities, markets, schools and workplaces.
Testing should be routine in antenatal care so that positive mothers can be managed and babies protected.
There is the need to make treatment affordable, but for that to happen the National Health Insurance Authority should be able to develop sustainable financing to reduce the cost of testing and treatment.
That must happen fast.
At the moment, most patients pay out of pocket.
That explains why fewer than one per cent are on treatment.
NHIS coverage for Hepatitis B management and Hepatitis C cure drugs will change the game.
Ghana has already shown what it can do through vaccination.
If we put the right policies together, we can eliminate viral Hepatitis before 2030.
We have four years to 2030.
The infrastructure from our HIV, TB and COVID-19 responses can be leveraged.
The political will expressed by the government must be matched with money and action.
The alternative is costly.
Treating liver cancer and cirrhosis drains families and the health system.
Preventing and curing hepatitis is cheaper and more humane.
A one per cent diagnosis ratio is not a statistic to accept.
It is a challenge to answer.
Ghana has the vaccines.
We have the cure for Hepatitis C.
We have health workers and facilities.
What we need now is deliberate financing, mass testing, and integration into everyday healthcare.
The only way to eliminate hepatitis is to find it first.
“Hepatitis Elimination for Everyone, Everywhere, Right Now!”
That was the theme for World Hepatitis Day 2026.
Let “right now” mean today.
Three million lives depend on it.
