Kabale Registers Low Turn Up for Hepatitis B Vaccination

Naboth Isaac Niwagaba

Over 80% of Kabale residents eligible for the Hepatitis B vaccine have not yet turned up to be immunized despite the vaccination campaign that has been going on in the District for almost two years.

This was revealed during a media engagement in which officials from the Ministry of Health, in partnership with Uganda Health Communication Alliance, interacted with a section of journalists and health officials in Kabale District about the Hepatitis B vaccination campaign that was launched by the government in 2015.

The campaign was implemented in a phased manner, starting with Northern Uganda, Eastern Uganda, and Northwestern Uganda based on the prevalence rate. The drive in southern and mid-eastern Uganda started in 2020.

According to Dr. Felix Kawooya, a medical officer attached to the Ministry of Health, 40% of the people have already been tested and about 90% of those who tested negative have been vaccinated, while 5% of those who tested positive are enrolled in treatment.

However, the Acting District Health Officer for Kabale District, Alfred Besigensi, revealed that only 23,979, or 20% of the 120,000 eligible population, have received their first jab of the Hepatitis B Vaccine since the campaign reached Kabale in September 2020.

Besigensi explained that they had only tested 28,602 people and 23,979 had received their first jab by January 27th, 2022. 15,285 of those who tested negative have received their second jab, while only 10,291 have completed the dosage by receiving the third jab.

Besigensi further revealed that in Kabale District, they were challenged by a few Hepatitis B treatment centres due to a lack of enough trained personnel to handle the management of patients. He said they had enrolled 534 people in treatment after testing positive since September 2020.

For more publicity, Ms Doreen Ruth Akuno, a senior nursing officer from the Ministry of Health, asked health officers to increase sensitization and attach written information about the vaccination campaign to access points of health facilities.

Uganda Health Communication Alliance Coordinator Tinkasimire Richard Baguma asked the journalists to champion the spread of information about hepatitis B, arguing that it is the chief responsibility of the media to ensure that they are serving a healthy population. Mr. Tinkasimire noted that less attention is paid to hepatitis B, yet the disease is killing many Ugandans.

Hepatitis B is a liver disease transmitted through body fluids, which include blood and sexual fluids. People can contract it through contaminated therapeutic injections, blood transfusions, and mother-to-child transmission at birth. According to the medics, the virus takes six months before it is fought off by the body or turns chronic, depending on the body immunity of the victim.

Every year, parliament allocates Ug. Shs. 10 billion to support the implementation of activities involved in the fight against Hepatitis B. The money is for the procurement of vaccines, testing kits, and the purchase of medicines, among others.

In Uganda, 4.1 percent of people aged 15 to 64 have hepatitis B, while 0.6 percent of people aged 0–14 years also have it, and according to a 2016 survey, Northern Uganda has the highest prevalence rate at 4.6 percent. The vaccine drop out stands at 68% after the first jab, 42% after the second jab, and only 33% complete the dosage.

In 2018 alone, Uganda had 280 patients at the Uganda Cancer Institute struggling with liver cancer, and 90% of them were caused by hepatitis B.

The government offers free vaccination services from Health Centre III to Referral Hospital level, and all Health Centre IVs up to Referral Hospitals have been designated as Hepatitis B treatment centers. However, there’s still low uptake of testing and vaccination. The government thinks that people don’t know that the services are free because some people have been paying for the services in private facilities.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has set 2030 as the target time for all countries to have eliminated Hepatitis B.hepatitis B, arguing that it is the chief responsibility of the media to ensure that they are serving a healthy population. Mr. Tinkasimire noted that less attention is paid to hepatitis B, yet the disease is killing many Ugandans.

Hepatitis B is a liver disease transmitted through body fluids, which include blood and sexual fluids. People can contract it through contaminated therapeutic injections, blood transfusions, and mother-to-child transmission at birth. According to the medics, the virus takes six months before it is fought off by the body or turns chronic, depending on the body immunity of the victim.

Every year, parliament allocates Ug. Shs. 10 billion to support the implementation of activities involved in the fight against Hepatitis B. The money is for the procurement of vaccines, testing kits, and the purchase of medicines, among others.

In Uganda, 4.1 percent of people aged 15 to 64 have Hepatitis B, while 0.6 percent of people aged 0–14 years also have it, and according to a 2016 survey, Northern Uganda has the highest prevalence rate, at 4.6 percent. The vaccine drop out stands at 68% after the first jab, 42% after the second jab, while only 33% complete the dosage.

In 2018 alone, Uganda had 280 patients at the Uganda Cancer Institute struggling with liver cancer, and 90% of them were caused by hepatitis B.

The government offers free vaccination services from Health Centre III to Referral Hospital level, and all Health Centre IVs up to Referral Hospitals have been designated as Hepatitis B treatment centers. However, there’s still low uptake of testing and vaccination. The government thinks that people don’t know that the services are free because some people have been paying for the services in private facilities.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has set 2030 as the target time for all countries to have eliminated Hepatitis B.

Worldwide, 257 million people are living with chronic hepatitis B (2016). 115 million people are living with Hepatitis B in the Western Pacific, and in Africa, 60 million people are living with the disease. 1.34 million people die of the disease each year, and according to the WHO, hepatitis B is more deadly than HIV, which kills 1.3 million people worldwide each year.