A retired director of public health at the Ministry of Health, Dr Chukwuma Anyaike, has urged communities to embrace hepatitis B vaccination.

He said that the disease remained a major public health threat despite recent advances in HIV and sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention.

Mr Anyaike said this during an interview on Wednesday in Abuja, while speaking on emerging innovations in sexual health prevention.

He said that the growing attention on new interventions such as Doxycycline Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (Doxy-PEP) and injectable Lenacapavir should not be distracted from efforts to prevent hepatitis B infection.

According to him, hepatitis B remains one of the world’s leading causes of liver disease and death, despite the availability of safe and effective vaccines.

He said that while Doxy-PEP and Lenacapavir represented significant breakthroughs in STI and HIV prevention, neither intervention protected against hepatitis B.

“Communities need to understand that these new prevention tools do not replace hepatitis B vaccination. Vaccination remains the most effective way to prevent hepatitis B infection and its long-term complications,” he said.

Mr Anyaike said that sexual transmission remained one of the major routes of hepatitis B infection, making vaccination an important component of comprehensive sexual health services.

He expressed concern that many people remained unaware of their hepatitis B status or had not received the recommended vaccine doses.

The public health expert also warned that individuals transitioning from oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to injectable Lenacapavir could lose the additional protection oral PrEP offered against hepatitis B if they were not vaccinated.

According to him, every encounter with sexual and reproductive health services should provide opportunities for hepatitis B screening, vaccination, HIV prevention and STI testing.

He called for stronger community awareness campaigns to improve knowledge of hepatitis B transmission, prevention and treatment.

Mr Anyaike also urged healthcare providers, governments and development partners to integrate hepatitis B vaccination into existing HIV and STI prevention programmes.

“The future of prevention must be comprehensive and community-centred. We need integrated services that combine HIV prevention, STI screening and treatment, hepatitis B vaccination, counselling and follow-up care,” he said.

He said that strengthening community engagement and expanding access to vaccination services would help reduce infections and improve health outcomes, particularly among vulnerable and underserved populations.

The World Health Organisation estimates that hepatitis B causes about 1.1 million deaths annually worldwide, largely from liver cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Health experts said that increasing vaccination coverage, early diagnosis and treatment remained critical to reducing the burden of the disease and achieving global hepatitis elimination targets.

(NAN)