Egypt's Health Ministry launches initiative to treat Hepatocellular carcinoma patients

CAIRO - 28 March 2022: Higher Education Minister and Acting Health Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar announced on Sunday launching an initiative meant to early detect and treat Hepatocellular carcinoma patients under the umbrella of the 100 Million Healthy Lives Initiative.

Abdel Ghaffar said the imitative is an extension of the treatment and early detection of people with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) initiative, launched by President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in October 2018.

Egypt had faced a key challenge in confronting the hepatitis virus due to its health and socio-economic ramifications, a matter which required unifying the concerned bodies topped by the Health Ministry to eliminate the virus.

The minister added that Egypt has the best protocols for treating liver cancer patients, who are in the first and intermediate stages, such as liver resection tumor surgery and liver transplantation.

Medicines for liver cancer are available at 22 centers affiliated with the National Committee for Control of Viral Hepatitis (NCCVH) at the hospitals of the ministry and universities, he mentioned.

He thanked Bayer AG for supporting the implementation of the initiative.