The minister of state for health Dr. Chris Baryomunsi says 33875 Ugandans already screened for Hepatitis B and 3130 tested positive. He says that the 10 billion shillings provided is not enough compared to the magnitude of the disease, calling for additional funds towards scaling down Hepatitis B since there are 3 million people at risk of this disease only in Northern Uganda.
The minister rejects claims that the approved 10 billion shillings was misused. He says that the ministry of health has built capacity of hospitals to tackle Hepatitis B using the money. He also says that government procured 1 million Hepatitis B vaccines and after Christmas the remaining 3.4 million will be procured. He says that the ministry of health has built capacity of hospitals to tackle Hepatitis B using the money.
Baryomunsi says that the ministry has been faced with the problem of hospitals at lower level not being able to give treatment to the people who are tested and found positive with Hepatitis B because there are only two hospitals which include Mulago and Arua treating patients with Hepatitis B. He says that government will start vaccination against Hepatitis B starting with west Nile ,lango, Acholi, Karamoja and Teso in the second week of December this year, adding that in the 2nd week of December the ministry of health will roll out testing, treatment and vaccination in high prevalence areas in the country.
