Sheema district health department has publicly revealed that the consumption of hepatitis B in the district greatly reduced ever since Covid-19 broke out in the country and that more than 50% doses of hepatitis B vaccines they received from the government, are likely to expire by the end of December this year.
Dr Dickens Atwongyeire Sheema district health officer said that out of 6500 dozes they had received from the national medical stores in 2019 , more than 3500 dozes are still in the district and health centre stores and that what worries more is that the first batch of the vaccines, will expire at the end of this year and then the next batch which will be the last one, will expire in early 2022, he believes that people in Sheema and around districts relaxed on getting this vaccine and concertrated on prevention of Covid-19 though the hepatitis B virus is more dangerous than Corona virus.
Dr Dickens also revealed to us that even those who had tried to be vaccinated, didn’t finish the dose hence dangerous to their health. He said that for one to complete his or her dose, he should be vaccinated in 3 phrases whereby after getting the first dose, one waits for a full month and then gets another one and then the last one after six months, but that in Sheema out of the few who were vaccinated, less than 30% completed the dose saying that one could get only two doses and he couldn’t go back for the last one which is also a threat to their lives.
Dr Wandela James Sheema district health focal person said that by the time Sheema received the doses in 2019, it had 5 positives with in 6 months whereby some died, that when this disease enters into your blood and finds there other strong diseases like diabetes, AIDS, Cancer and pressure, it may not take for over a year minus dying.
He added that this disease is transmitted through blood especially through un protected sex and it can show signs with in 48 hours.
Dr Anthony Tumuhimbise Sheema district immunization in charge as health department, they should blame themselves for this mess saying that they didn’t sensitise the public about this strange disease, that they only left the sensitisation to be done by the village health teams (VHTs) who also hadn’t gotten a fully baked information about the disease. He believes that this disease is still in Sheema district saying that people may be dying of it un knowingly yet the vaccines are all over Sheema district health centres at no cost.
