Egypt nominated to chair 1st round of Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination starting 20 Sept.

CAIRO - 29 August 2022: Egypt is nominated to chair the first round of the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination, whose activities will start on 20 September, CGHE Director John Ward told Egyptian Minister of Health Khaled Abdel Ghaffar on Sunday.

This comes in appreciation of the Egyptian state’s efforts in eliminating Hepatitis C as per the directives of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, a statement by the Egyptian Health Ministry read on Monday.

During their meeting in Cairo, Abdel Ghaffar reviewed with Ward the Egyptian presidential initiative to eliminate Hepatitis C, which included testing around 70 million citizens for the virus and detecting more than 2.2 million positive cases, according to the statement.

For his part, War hailed Egypt’s efforts in eliminating hepatitis viruses, expressing appreciation of Egypt’s approval to chair the coalition, which will contribute to achieving the coalition goal to eliminate HCV worldwide.

In October 2018, Egypt launched the “100 Millin Health” campaign for testing citizens for Hepatitis C and other chronic diseases and treating those who test positive for the bloodborne disease given that chronic diseases are responsible for the majority of deaths in Egypt.

Two years later, the Egyptian Health Ministry announced that Egypt has become the first country to become free of Hepatitis C.