Faculty of Medicine, Menoufia University, Menoufia, Egypt.
Healthy Africans Platform, Research and Development, Ibadan, Nigeria.
Int J Health Plann Manage. 2022 Jan;37(1):547-552. doi: 10.1002/hpm.3317. Epub 2021 Aug 30.
With the overwhelming COVID-19 pandemic in Africa, many other severe epidemics have been given low priority, such as viral hepatitis. Patient mortality due to viral hepatitis has raised concern to COVID-19 patients due to compromise with undiagnosed hepatitis in Africa. The pandemic has worsened the control of the viral hepatitis epidemic as healthcare control facilities have moved their focus towards curbing COVID-19 infections. However, different challenges have arisen to viral hepatitis patients because of low health attention that declines the progress of already diagnosed hepatitis patients. Follow-up plans, routine testing and treatment plans for viral hepatitis are no longer as strict with the human resources transferred towards combating the pandemic. Thus, a global effort is required to abide by renewed recommendations to eradicate viral hepatitis in Africa that also fit the current picture of the COVID-19 pandemic. The article discusses the current challenges viral hepatitis patients faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and important recommendations that can see through these challenges in Africa.
在非洲 COVID-19 疫情肆虐的情况下，许多其他严重的传染病被置于次要地位，如病毒性肝炎。由于非洲未确诊的肝炎，病毒性肝炎患者的死亡率引起了 COVID-19 患者的关注。大流行使病毒性肝炎的流行情况恶化，因为医疗保健控制设施将其重点转移到遏制 COVID-19 感染上。但是，由于对卫生保健的重视程度降低，导致已经诊断出的肝炎患者的病情恶化，从而使病毒性肝炎患者面临着不同的挑战。由于人力资源转移到对抗大流行上，病毒性肝炎的随访计划、常规检测和治疗计划不再那么严格。因此，需要全球共同努力，遵守在非洲消除病毒性肝炎的新建议，这些建议也符合 COVID-19 大流行的当前情况。本文讨论了在 COVID-19 大流行期间病毒性肝炎患者面临的当前挑战，以及在非洲可以应对这些挑战的重要建议。
