Schools warned against clamoring for Hepatitis B vaccine

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Ministry of Health has asked schools to suspend all immunization drives against Hepatitis B, a viral infection that attacks the liver and can cause both acute and chronic liver disease.

Dr Bernard Opar, a Program Manager of Uganda National Expanded Programme on Immunization (UNEPI) says that the government policy on immunization covers all children aged 1-15 and that they do not need any additional dose of Hepatitis B while at school.

The Uganda Routine Immunization Schedule for children under one year old provides for vaccination against Hepatitis B, given at different intervals of the life cycle.  All kids are given DPT-HepB-Hib2 vaccine at 6 weeks and 10 weeks to prevent among many diseases Hepatitis B.

He said all children who were immunized right from 2002 have already got protection against Hepatitis B. It is only those teens above 16 years, born before 2002,  and adults, who are now being targeted.

He said nationwide immunization drives  will soon target 13 diseases by adding Rotavirus and Meningitis in the next few months. The killer diseases focussed on up to now have been 11, Tuberculosis, Poliomyelitis, Whooping cough, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Measles,Neonatal Tetanus, Hepatitis B infection,H. Influenzae infxns, Cancer of cervix and Pneumococcal infxns.

“The introduction of new vaccines increased the number of antigens provided under the Routine immunization programme to 12 and implies Ugandan children are protected from more Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPDs),” he told the press.

Vaccines Pertussis, Diphtheria and Tetanus have antigens that prevent Hepatitis B.

But schools had started parallel vaccination drives following a reported outbreak of the chronic disease, which is affecting about 3.5 million Ugandans, about 10 percent of the population. Last year, a number of students from Masaka Secondary School were sent home after failing to pay Hepatitis B vaccination fees. The school had asked for 35,000 Shillings from each student for the jab.

Dr Opar says the school-led vaccination and the charges are illegal. He told a press conference in Kampala that Hepatitis B vaccination is free of charge in all government facilities adding that it’s wasteful to give people more than one dose of the vaccine.

Although Hepatitis B is a primarily liver infection, it can have far-reaching complications on all other body organs like the bones, skin, kidneys, the heart, the brain and nerves. It can also have hypertension, liver cancer and death.

The virus is transmitted through contact with the blood or other body fluids of an infected person, is most prevalent in Karamoja, Northern Uganda, West Nile and western region.

Meanwhile, the Ministry Of Health is planning to undertake a massive immunization against Hepatitis-B across the country, according to Dr Jackson Amone, the Commissioner Curative Services. Dr Amone says that the campaign will be organized by the National Medical Stores to clear plenty of vaccines left in stock before they expire.

He said their are plans to have Hepatitis B camps in Kampala in the next six months.

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