Hepatitis B Foundation of Ghana has issued a 7-day ultimatum to Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, a renowned cellular pathologist and lifestyle wellness consultant, demanding a retraction of what they describe as false statements regarding the transmission of the disease.
The former Director-General of the Ghana Health Service suggested during a discussion at the Ghana Shippers Authority Hall in Accra that communal eating from one bowl, particularly of soupy foods like fufu, omo tuo, or tuo zaafi, could contribute to the spread of Hepatitis B.
He explained that individuals sharing a bowl may inadvertently exchange saliva, potentially transmitting the virus if one person is infected.
The Hepatitis B Foundation of Ghana has taken issue with these statements and is demanding a retraction within seven days. They argue that such assertions could misinform the public about the true modes of transmission for Hepatitis B.
“Once upon a time, we were all there, there was group participation, group eating, group everything…
“And even the eating, it was later on that I [Prof Akosa] realised that, this is how we spread Hepatitis B. We didn’t know that. We are all eating fufu by the time you finish, you are drinking saliva.”
“I mean five, six of you, you are doing omo tuo or you are doing fufu, what do you think you are doing, you are going in like that and then you come in, by the time you are ending you are drinking saliva, it is the easiest way to spread hepatitis B, he said.
But in an interview with Starr News, an Executive member of the Hepatitis B Foundation of Ghana, Theobald Owusu Ansah stated that the claims of the retired Professor is false and has no scientific basis.
He asked Prof. Akosa to retract his comment or they will embark on a demonstration against him because his comment is discriminating and creating panic among people living with Hepatitis B.
“We all know that there is no scientific evidence that one can contract Hepatitis B by eating with a Hepatitis B patient. Hepatitis B is transmitted through blood or mother to child transmission.
The funny thing is that when I started advocacy he was then the Director-General of GHS and we were discussion policy and other matters with him, but I don’t know why he made this statement.
He should issue a statement for what he has said and also apologize to people living with Hepatitis B for lying.”
He expressed surprise over the silence of the Ghana Health Service on the matter.
“It is an unfortunate comment coming from a whole professor of medicine.
He has destroyed the work we have done for the past twelve years. I don’t know why the Programme Manager of the Ghana Health Service, the Hepatitis B Programme Manager are all quiet about this issue.
Is it because he taught them in school or because he’s the former Director-General of GHS they don’t want to say anything,” Theobald Owusu Ansah asked?