So many Nigerians are not aware of the danger hepatitis b virus pose to their wellbeing. There is a little information and sensitization about the virus compare to HIV, Malaria and Tubaculousis. The worst of all there are no enough liver specialist to tackle this virus in Nigeria. Hence, most patient got wrong information about the virus from their normal doctors when they were first diagonised.

Hepatitis B is not deadlier than HIV

Most of the people diagonised of HBV don't need treatment, about 80 percent of them are in inactive stage.

Beacuse, most of the mainstream doctors in Nigeria are ignorant of this, they rush to prescribe treatment for patient. It is always better to consult a liver specialist.

The remaining 20 percent that are in active stage need to run hepatitis panel. Where you test for hepatitis A,B,C and D. Even the patients on inactive stage must do this as well.

Go for liver function test to see if the virus has started to damage your liver. Both active and inactive patients.


Majority of the people that have HBV got it as a child. Mostly from mother child transmittion. As a child your immune system is weak to fight the virus. With this the virus will settle in your system.

90 percent of adult that had the virus fight it off without taken any drugs. As an adult your immune system is strong to fight.


If you got the virus from birth and you are up to 30 years of age, go for ultrasound of the liver and fibroscan if you can afford it. I don't know if is available in Nigeria.


HBV is the only sexually transmitted disease you can prevent with vaccine. If you are vaccinated you don't need to worry about the virus.

If you were born in the 80s, you are in higher risk of getting the virus. The vaccine was discovered in 1981. It got into Nigeria late 90s. I learnt is recently the government made it compulsory for new born babies in Nigeria to be vaccinated. As you can see many people have it and they don't know.

Hepatitis B is not Hepatitis C

C has a cure since 2013, B is treatable


Some people that have HBV also have HDV, the reason you must conduct hapetitis panel.

If you are on inactive stage, it might be only change of life style you need for the virus to remain dormant forever.

Avoid alcohol, stop smoking, stop eating red meat, stop using oil to cook and fried food. All this affect your level and raise your viral load.

Eat alot of vegetable and fruits, exercise, drink good water and stay healthy. Your liver specialist might advice you to run test every 3 months or 6 months, even 1 year to monitor the virus.

If your doctor decide you are a good candidate for treatment, there are drugs to reduce the virus to undetectable level.

Even the few percentages that required treatment some do clear the virus after the treatments or those that doesn't take it at all. Scientist don't know why this happened in some patients.

The future is bright for those living with HBV

There are alot of promising drugs being developed to attack the virus from every lifecycle. There are rumors that there is a cure among the various drugs under going different stages of clinical trials

https://www.hepb.org/treatment-and-management/drug-watch/

What you need to do is to take care of yourself and stay alive till they finally approve these drugs for consumption.

Just like Hepatitis C virus that is now history, Hepatitis B will be history soon when a functional cure is finally discovered.

Informative.