“I came here in May [2024], working in the market. My stepbrothers, their mother has passed on. So the only person who has remained as their mother is me. That’s what brought me from New Fangak to Old Fangak,” says Nyasebit.
Hepatitis E outbreaks are unusually long compared to other epidemics. Unlike measles, for example, which might race through an unvaccinated community in six weeks, hepatitis E’s long incubation period means transmission is slower, and outbreaks can last for months.
In Old Fangak, Nyasebit heard about the vaccination campaign for women and girls of child-bearing age. “When I came in May, I found that people have been vaccinated. I wanted to be vaccinated as well,” she says.
Launched by MSF in December 2023, the campaign consisted of multiple rounds of vaccination to reach as many women as possible in Old Fangak and the isolated communities of the flooded marshlands spread across Fangak County.
Nyasebit was not able to escape hepatitis E but had received two doses of the three-dose schedule, which helped reduce the severity of her infection. At first, though, it wasn’t clear she had it, as the symptoms are often confused with the more common malaria.
