The National Health Insurance Company (CNAM) has purchased 155,000 shots of vaccine against viral hepatitis B for grownups. The vaccines were distributed to the 44 local public health centers that, for their part, will distribute them to primary healthcare institutions, IPN reports.

According to a communiqué of the CNAM, about 52,000 people will be immunized in the period between October and December. There will be administered by three doses for each adult from high-risk groups. These groups include people who can contract the disease by intimate contact, by skin and mucous membrane lesions. The vaccines were imported from India.

In Moldova there are over 40,000 people suffering from chronic hepatitis. In 2013, there were recorded 1,726 new cases. Hepatitis B can be caught mainly by intimate contact, by transfusing infected blood or blood derivatives, by using contaminated medical tools.

According to the World Health Organization, about 600,000 people die annually from hepatitis B worldwide.