Agency
All newly born babies countrywide will soon be subjected to yet another vaccine, after the Ministry of Health announced plans to roll out the Hepatitis B jab at all health facilities offering immunisation services.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Dr Ronny Bahatungire, the Commissioner for Clinical Services in the ministry, revealed that the national roll-out scheduled for August will target both new babies born at the hospital and those that are delivered outside health facilities but brought in not later than 24 hours after birth.
The introduction of this new vaccine means newly born babies will now receive three drugs, including two existing vaccines against Polio and Tuberculosis, and Bahatungire says the new development is intended to cut down on the high rates of mother-to-child transmission of the disease.
Estimates from the 2019 Uganda Population-based HIV Impact Assessment (UPHIA), which is the most recent survey to collect data on hepatitis B, show that the disease is prevalent among 4.1 percent of the population, with the majority being women, and yet testing rates for it remain low, below 60 per cent.
Experts predict that many more people could be living with the disease that can deteriorate into liver cancer, and yet immunisation can help protect babies from acquiring the disease from their mothers at birth or even during breastfeeding.
