Egypt’s Hepatitis C initiative examines over 1.5 million citizens in 6 days

CAIRO – 24 September 2020: A presidential initiative to test Egyptian people for chronic diseases, including Hepatitis C, has examined more than 1.5 million citizens over the past six days, said Health Minister Hala Zayed on Wednesday.

This is the highest number of patients to be examined under the “100 Million Lives” initiative in few days, said spokesman for the ministry Khaled Megahed.

Upon the directives of the minister, the spokesman said the initiative is now targeting citizens over 40 years to detect any chronic disease like diabetes, blood pressure or heart diseases and start early treatment.

The initiative will remain in place till December 31, urging all citizens over 40 years old to go to any nearby medical center that is operating under the initiative and conduct necessary tests.

The was launched in October 2018 under the auspices of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. The Health Ministry vowed to completely eliminate the disease from Egypt in 2022.

In an earlier meeting gathering the representatives of nine World Health Organization (WHO) offices in Africa and the Middle East in Cairo, Egypt’s initiative against the blood-borne disease was discussed to be applied in 18 African countries, WHO announced in a press conference July 2019

Sisi ordered intensifying efforts aimed to transfer Egypt's health and medical expertise to other African countries for curing 1 million Africans. Sisi was updated on the Health Ministry’s planned visits to Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania to assess their medical needs.

Last week, the ministry said up to 15.000 Chadian people were checked as part of the Egyptian Initiative since the implementation of the initiative last October.

In a press release, Megahed said that the Egyptian medical delegation that traveled to Chad inspected a number of facilities in N'Djamena ahead of starting its mission.

Megahed added that a meeting was held in which a number of Egyptian and Chadian officials had attended including Chadian Health Minister Abdoulaye Sabre Fadoul and Egyptian embassy representative to Chad Mohhamed Orabi to discuss setting a work plan to the initiative in the coming period.

Megahed also said that the initiative managed to examine 15,441 Chadians since October in which 715 were found to be suffering from Hepatitis C, adding that they received the medications required.

Meanwhile, Fadoul thanked Zayed over her continuous support to Chad's health sector and the Egyptian teams over their efforts to implement Sisi ‘s health initiative in Chad.