Health Ministry talks for Virus C detectors from int’l Co

CAIRO – 17 JULY 2017: The health ministry is negotiating with an international company to supply it with necessary quick hepatitis C virus detectors as part of a comprehensive medical survey, said health ministry spokespersonKhaled Mogahed.

A comprehensive medical survey started in 2017 to detect patients with virus C in 9 Upper Egyptian governorates for age group 18 to 59 included a million and 500 thousand patients.

A production line for Egypt shall be launched to provide the ministry with 10 million detectors annually in implementation of President Sisi’s directives.

“By the end of July there was no one on the waiting list due to increasing the number of Viruc C treatment centers from 53 to 164 and decreasing the cost of treatment,” said Khaled Mogahed.

The Ministry of Health has asked the Ministry of Finance to provide it with funds to cope with the waiting lists and treat Viruc C patients, according to the spokesperson.

All state institutions support the ministry’s plan to combat hepatitis C. in this respect, the ministry is working on 3 axes to eradicate it: finishing the waiting list which has been already done, implementing a national plan for a comprehensive medical survey, and preventing and decreasing infection cases.

The governmnent’s extensive efforts to combat Hepatitis C in Egypt have been recognized by the WHO.

In 2014 the organization said at least one in 10 Egyptians aged between 15 and 59 is infected with Hepatitis C adding that the virus kills an estimated 40,000 Egyptians annually.

President Sisi proposed in 2015 a new deal to buy one million doses of the Virus C treatment annually.

Treatment expenses have been reduced by 85.5 percent, from 10,545 EGP ($581) to 1,527 EGP.

($ 849.33) per unit, as a result of using locally manufactured medicine. By the end of March 2017, an estimated 1,055,266 patients received treatment at state expense, at a total cost of 3,167 billion EGP ($1,7623) billion.