The Ministry of Health will next year integrate affordable hepatitis vaccination and testing into the package of services provided by public health facilities.

The shift will make the services more accessible to the public as, currently, it is limited to the free campaigns that are carried out by the ministry, according to Dr Jean Damascene Makuza, the director of Sexually Transmitted Infections and other Blood Infections at Rwanda Biomedical Centre.

In the new move, each of the three doses for hepatitis vaccine will be given at Rwf2,800, instead of the Rwf8,700 currently. The testing will cost between Rwf1,000 and Rwf2,000.

The services are expected to be rolled out by January next year at health facilities across the country.

According to Makuza, the Hepatitis B and C vaccination campaigns, which have periodically been carried out at different public places, are difficult for the ministry as they require a lot in form of funds and other resources.

This, he said, is one of the factors that motivated the decision to take the services to public health centres at subsidised prices.

This year, a hepatitis drive dubbed, "2017 World Hepatitis Day Campaign,” covered all the thirty districts of the country and saw 420,000 people vaccinated and 260,000 screened for Hepatitis B and C.

According to Makuza, fewer people were screened because of limited resources.

Many were vaccinated without having been screened, although Dr Makuza, who was speaking to The New Times on Friday, said this is harmless and allowed by the World Health Organisation in case of limited means.

"It was our plan (to vaccinate some without screening them) because we were not in position to conduct enough tests since they are expensive. Recommendation from WHO says that you can vaccinate someone without first testing them. The vaccine does not harm the person even when they are already infected,” he said.

By the end of the campaign, Makuza said, the need to come up with a better plan was necessary since many people remained in need of the services.

"They asked us to continue because you see we had not finished all of them. If you have over 12 million people, more than 5 million of whom are over 15 years and you only vaccinate about 400,000, it is little,” he said.

He reckons that the new plan will cover more people. Asked if Mutuelle de Sante will cover the tests and vaccinations, he said they are in negotiations with Rwanda Social Security Board over the matter.

However, Makuza said that this does not mean that periodic campaigns will no longer happen.

"It will depend. May be we can have them every July 28 on the World Hepatitis Day or other events or if we have donors willing to give them (vaccines and tests),” he said.

RBC will conduct a public and private institutions staff vaccination campaign next month during which between 50,000 to 60,000 people are targeted to be screened and vaccinated at a fee of Rwf5,000 per person.

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