28.5M citizens checked as part of ‘100 Million Health’ campaign

CAIRO – 30 January 2019: Minister of Health Hala Zayed said on Wednesday, Jan. 30 that the ministry checked more than 28.5 million citizens across the country as part of "100 Million Seha (health)" campaign.

The initiative was launched by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi under the title "100 Million Health" to eradicate Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) and chronic diseases.

Zayed added that the state targets reaching all potential Hepatitis C patients and treating them totally free of charge.

Spokesperson of the Ministry of Health Khaled Megahed told Egypt today that the three-phase campaign started in October 2018 and will end in April 2019.

In January, the minister unveiled an Egyptian initiative to treat African people from Hepatitis C, starting with the Nile Basin countries that have an estimated 3.7 million hepatitis C patients, representing 30 percent of the total number of infected people in Africa.

During a meeting with members of the Parliament's African Affairs Committee headed by Tarek Radwan, the minister said that the Ministry of Health is currently working to help the Nile Basin countries cure the cases that test positive for Hepatitis C and will send medical personnel from the private sector to these states.

This initiative will help spread Egyptian medicine and open markets for it, Zayed said, adding that it offers an opportunity to export medicine to Africa and an opportunity to treat 1 million people infected with the blood-borne disease in the Nile Basin countries.

An official source in the Health Ministry also told Egypt Today that citizens will also get the hemoglobin A1c test to help early detection of diabetes, and provide immediate free treatment for diabetic people.