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Courtesy photo. By Erema George Arua City The parish priest of Aripea catholic parish in Terego has sounded an alarm to the local government of the district over a surge in the number of deaths caused by Hepatitis B disease. Rev. Fr. Richard Wokut made these c
Courtesy photo.
By Erema George
Arua City
The parish priest of Aripea catholic parish in Terego has sounded an alarm to the local government of the district over a surge in the number of deaths caused by Hepatitis B disease.
Rev. Fr. Richard Wokut made these comments on August 5, 2026, at the parish during the burial of a seminarian who succumbed to the disease.
According to Wokut, the rate of Hepatitis B in the district is too high that many Christians and the religious have now succumbed to the disease. He noted that despite several efforts put to have vaccinations done, the district has not responded positively to carry out mass vaccinations calling for an urgent response.
“Let the district look for anyway of lobbing for funds and bring free vaccination of hepatitis B in Terego, I have always told you, I may be having more details about the death or the rate at which people are dying of hepatitis B maybe than even the district health officer because I go to anoint them, I go to bury them. So the government needs to wake up and do a thorough vaccination in the area,” Wokut advised.
He encouraged Christian community not to rely entirely on the government alone but rather take the responsibility of doing routine checkup and vaccination against the disease.
“Also as individuals let’s try to go for tests, squeeze some little money. If the government has failed, let’s try to go for tests so that we are able to know our status and maybe through the help of the medical personel we may be rescued,” Wokut appealed.
The Terego chief Administrative Officer (CAO),Charles Kumakech Oluba in response said free vaccination for hepatitis B for adults was done long ago and encourages the population to check the nearest health facilities to seek support.
“We have a biostatistician who compiles information on the trend of diseases in the district and that is reported on monthly basis to the ministry. I don’t think Hepatitis B is one of the trending diseases in Terego being reported. It would have come out because we do surveillance reporting,” Kumakech noted.
Hepatitis B causes an estimated 1.1 million deaths worldwide each year.In Uganda, liver diseases—largely driven by chronic viral hepatitis—resulted in over 5,000 deaths in recent tracking years, with the World Health Organization (WHO) specifically attributing an estimated 1,250 annual deaths directly linked to Hepatitis B.