An newborn with its mother - Reuters
CAIRO – 3 August 2021: The Health Ministry has launched an initiative for the early detection of 19 genetic diseases to treat children for free and protect them for the potential of disability.
A total of 19 types of mechanism to detect the diseases in newborns are available in Egypt, the ministry said in a Tuesday statement. Four national companies can participate in the provision of medicines for treatment, it added.
The treatment will be provided free of charge for all age groups, coupled with educating Egyptians on how not to have children with genetic diseases.
Every affected newborn will have periodic follow-ups, its data will be digitized and there will be a genetic-disease check box in its birth certificate.
As part of Egypt’s 2030 Vision regarding health, a total of 24 clinics across the country are ready to receive young spinal muscular atrophy patients to conduct clinical, genetic, and partial biology tests as well as receive treatment.
Ten children below two years of age have already been enlisted to receive the most expensive treatment in the world to treat spinal muscular atrophy, where the medicine costs around L.E.34 million. The treatment has been administered to the first of the enlisted babies on Tuesday.
The decision was made after an Egyptian collected the cost in an online campaign to treat her affected son.
Hotline 106 is available for questions on the initiative.
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