Hepatitis E death toll hits 114

Aug 20, 2008

FOUR more people have died of Hepatitis E in Kitgum district, increasing the death toll to 114. This is out of a cumulative number of 7,331 people infected with the disease, according to district officials.

By Dennis Ojwee

FOUR more people have died of Hepatitis E in Kitgum district, increasing the death toll to 114. This is out of a cumulative number of 7,331 people infected with the disease, according to district officials.

The chairman of the Hepatitis E task force, Sylvester Opira, on Tuesday said 309 new cases were reported last week. He added that more than 4,000 patients had recovered from the disease.

Opira identified Padibe sub-county as the area with the highest number of deaths (71). He added that the other people who died of the disease were residents of Amucwini and Agoro subcounties.

Opira said the local leaders and agencies at various levels in the community were mobilising and sensitizing the people about the importance of personal and household hygiene.

He said this includes a clean environment in accordance with the public health regulations and requirements, in a bid to fight the spread of the disease.

Opira added that the consumption of the local brews called kwete and lacoyi and sharing drinking straws had been banned to reduce the spread of the disease.

He called upon the health ministry to send money for the construction of more boreholes and protected wells.

Opira noted that the villages, where the internally displaced people are settling after leaving the main camps, needed these facilities urgently. Hepatitis E is a viral disease spread through faecal matter.

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