An official from the Ministry of Health says confirmatory tests for hepatitis cannot be done in the country due to the high cost of medical equipment.

Cases of hepatitis are usually checked three times before results are issued.

However, the Director General in the Ministry of Health, Richard Laku, told Eye Radio’s Dawn Show that the results may be unreliable.

“… Most of the tests that we have been doing in Juba, we use serological tests, rapid tests, which of course, can tell you that this person is may be exposed can detect the anti-bodies but, it can also give you false positive results sometimes that is why if you have that test positive in the rapid then you need to do a confirmatory test before we say that you really have that infection. …we don’t have those confirmatory tests… We normally take samples send them abroad to the regional labs in Nairobi, in Uganda also they send them to South Africa to look for the virus load in the blood and all these so that they can determine”, Laku said.

Mr. Laku attributes the lack of diagnostic equipment to shortage of funds.

Dr. Richard says the Ministry is planning a wide range of vaccination campaigns in the country for several infectious diseases.