Hepatitis among Jaya Sikirui troops

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 January 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan army commander initiated a program last week to control the spread of hepatitis - B among his soldiers deployed in the Jayasikurui Operation in the Vanni. More than thousand soldiers have been admitted to the Anuradhapura hospital in the first phase of this program. 5620 soldiers at the front were injected with the vaccine for Hepatitis -B.

This vaccine, according to doctors, is not very effective as it lasts only for about six months. Several doses of this vaccine have to be, therefore, injected for it to be effective they say.

The hepatitis vaccine is normally injected only to people facing a very high risk of the disease through blood transfusion etc., the doctors added. 3896 soldiers were injected second round of the vaccine and only 150 have received the full course of injections said army sources.

The army has also distributed leaflets among the Jayasikurui troops to stop the panic caused among them by the rapid spread of the disease following the onset of the northeastern monsoons in the Vanni from October 1997.

Water purifying tablets were also distributed among the troops as part of this program.