Okyeame Kwame
This year’s edition of the hepatitis B screening exercise for thousands of Ghanaians living in Accra and its environs will take place on July 28, hiplife artiste Okyeame Kwame announced yesterday.
With support from MDS Lancet Laboratories, the versatile rapper will mount medical equipment at Bawaleshie in Accra to screen and vaccinate Ghanaians.
According to Okyeame Kwame, the screening exercise is an annual event aimed at helping kick hepatitis B out of the country. It is under the theme: ‘Let’s Kick Hepatitis Out’.
In interview with BEATWAVES, Okyeame Kwame stated that the exercise is being organised to mark this year’s World Hepatitis B Day which also falls on Friday, July 28.
He mentioned that in addition to the screening exercise, some selected Ghana artistes have been invited to perform after the exercise to entertain all those who will participate in the exercise.
Hepatitis B, Okyeame Kwame explained, is a potentially life-threatening liver infection caused by the hepatitis B virus.
He added that it is a major global health problem that can cause chronic infection and put people at high risk of death from cirrhosis and liver cancer.
Okyeame Kwame reminded the media and the general public that July 28 is World Hepatitis Day “and a conscious effort must be made to spread the news for people to be tested and vaccinated”.
The hiplife artiste has for the past eight years given free hepatitis B screening, education and vaccination for about 8,000 people across Ghana.
After successfully starting the campaign in 2009 which has seen thousands of Ghanaians receive free testing and vaccination, the rapper says the campaign now wants to support the poor who have been infected.
He stressed that the campaign is now “moving into the area of buying medication for poor women who are hepatitis B positive and can’t afford the medication”.
By George Clifford Owusu