Egypt screens 1.26M Grade 7 students for hepatitis C

CAIRO – 2 January 2023: The Ministry of Health and Population announced Monday screening 1.263 million Grade 7 students for hepatitis C, within a plan to screen 2.2 million pupils at middle schools in the current academic year.

President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi’s initiative to eliminate Hepatitis C was launched in October 2018 through a national campaign for early diagnosis of hepatitis C infection and non-communicable diseases (diabetes, hypertension and obesity), and the campaign succeeded in examining 90 million Egyptian citizens.

The total cost of the initiative to eliminate hepatitis C and early diagnosis of non-communicable diseases was about LE4 billion, including LE2.5 billion for the survey and LE1.5 billion for treatment.

The hepatitis C initiative contributed to exempting the state from bearing the cost of treating hepatitis C and its complications, which amounted annually to LE64 billion through early diagnosis and treatment of the disease.