27 doctors trained to help HCV patients with hearing problems: Ministry

CAIRO – 3 June 2019: 100 Million Seha medical campaign, launched to test citizens and treat patients with Hepatitis C and other chronic diseases, continues its efforts to serve deaf and mute people through sign language interpreters.

The initiative said it has trained 27 doctors to use the sign language with the deaf and mute, and has also established a call center to receive video calls from citizens with hearing impairment to guide them to the Health Ministry's places for treatment.

The training of doctors and participants in the "100 million health" campaign is aimed at teaching the principles of sign language to deal with patients diagnosed with C virus and non-communicable diseases of special needs (hearing and speech impairment).

The medical initiative was launched by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi under the title "100 Million Health" to eradicate Hepatitis C and chronic diseases. The Health Ministry has vowed to completely eliminate the disease from Egypt by 2022.

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

In January, Health Minister Hala Zayed 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.

In March, Egypt's Ministry of Justice started its first training course for 22 employees working at the state's real estate departments in Giza and Cairo to use the sign language to help the disabled people finish their papers.

The training comes as part of a cooperation protocol signed January between the Justice Ministry and the National Council for Disability Affairs.