The Ministry of Health and Population said that Egypt will be officially announced as free of Hepatitis C Virus during the upcoming meeting of the General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO).
This comes after the WHO Director-General delivered a report to President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on their follow-up campaign, describing it as the largest campaign in the history of mankind in terms of work, efficiency, and speed during the period of seven months.
Egypt has achieved its ambitious goal of eliminating hepatitis; this goal was guided by a clear political vision from the Egyptian president.
Noteworthy, last February, the health ministry established 13 centers to treat African nationals with hepatitis C.
The initiative includes Burundi, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.
The initiative follows Egypt’s successful campaign to detect and treat millions of its own nationals suffering from hepatitis C.
Health Minister Dr. Hala Zayed revealed that about 30,375 million citizens were screened for virus C in February, as part of the campaign across Egypt.
The three-phase campaign is part of an ongoing attempt to eliminate the disease in Egypt by 2022.
In 2015 the WHO found that Egypt had the highest prevalence of hepatitis C in the world. Twenty-two percent of Egyptian blood donors tested positive for the disease, and more than 40,000 people each year die of liver failure and liver cancers associated with the disease.
In 2016, the World Health Assembly approved the first global health sector strategy on viral hepatitis; a strategy that contributes to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
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