With an estimated 20 million Nigerians living with Hepatitis B Virus , a renowned professor of Gastroenterology, and Hepatology, University of Ibadan, Jesse Otegbayo has called for the integration of the HBV vaccine into the National Programme on Immunisation.
“The liver has appropriately ascribed the appellation of the body workhorse or powerhouse of the whole body because it is known scientifically to play crucial roles in carbohydrate, fat, protein, vitamins, and mineral metabolism, regulation of blood clotting, immunity, and many others. It is known to perform over 500 functions in the body,” he said.
He observed that among the four viruses, Hepatitis B has the most devastating effect on the environment, with the capacity to deliver a toxic and fatal sting on the liver. He explained that the HBV virus in its transmissible form is found in all body fluids, such as blood, semen, saliva, sweat, urine, and bile, while the most effective means of transmission is however, blood and blood products.
For the study, the team utilised the study of the interactions, function, composition, and structures of proteins and their cellular activities known as proteomics to develop a prediction model aimed at screening for liver cancer at an earlier stage using the SomaScan Assay Kit. The co-author and Professor, Division of Interdisciplinary Medicine and Biotechnology at the centre, Towia Libermann, said, “It’s always been challenging to identify highly specific disease biomarkers in the blood using traditional tools, but this new technology allows us to detect a broad and dynamic range of both high and low abundant proteins.
Justice Abiodun Akinyemi of the Ogun State High Court sitting in Abeokuta has sentenced a 47-year-old secondary school teacher, Ojo Ezekiel, to life imprisonment for sexually assaulting a seven-year-old minor.