Uganda: Hepatitis E spreads, IDPs most vulnerable

Hepatitis E is on the increase in Uganda’s northern district of Pader, where it has claimed scores of lives and infected thousands in the past year, officials said. Since May, there have been 55 new infections and seven deaths in Pader, according to Angelo Luganya, a health official in Pader.

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Since 2007, the viral disease has infected up to 8,000 people in neighbouring Kitgum district alone, and killed 129. The disease has since spread to the districts of Pader, Gulu, Adjumani and Amuru.

Hepatitis E is transmitted mainly by drinking contaminated water or eating contaminated food.

[T]he majority of those infected in the district were internally displaced persons (IDPs).

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Poor sanitation has contributed to the spread of the disease, with some IDPs lacking pit latrines and others drinking unsafe water from unprotected sources, leaving them prone to infection.

Read more: IRIN, 13 Oct 2008

Uganda: Poor hygiene fuelling Hepatitis in north

KAMPALA, 7 August 2008 (IRIN) – Bad hygiene and lack of adequate sanitation facilities in northern Uganda, a region still recovering from two decades of conflict, have fuelled the spread of the Hepatitis E viral infection in several districts, a senior official said.

“The major challenges are inadequate access to safe water, unhygienic disposal of faeces, poor personal and domestic hygiene,” Steven Malinga, the Health Minister, told IRIN on 7 August. (…)

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