Hepatitis C virus, tumors cost Egypt LE 3.3B in 2016

CAIRO – 11 June 2017: “The treatment of tumors and the hepatitis C virus cost Egypt about LE 3.318 billion last year,” Minister of Health and Population, Ahmad Emad El-Din Rady, said to Egypt Today, Sunday.

The Ministry has decided that treatment of hepatitis C virus shall be provided at the expense of the state, according to a statement by Sherif Rashed, member of the Association of Drug Manufacturers told Egypt Today, Sunday.


Rashed added that the Ministry of Health will make a comprehensive survey to detect cases of hepatitis C virus in the Delta governorates in 2018 as part of its plans to contain and eradicate the virus.

Hepatitis C is a liver disease caused by the hepatitis C virus; it can cause both acute and chronic hepatitis, ranging in severity from a mild illness for a few weeks to a serious lifelong disease.

The most common modes of infection are through exposure to small quantities of blood. This may happen through drug injection, unsafe injection practices, unsafe health care, and the transfusion of unscreened blood and blood products.

The World Health Program (WHO) estimates that 71 million people around the world have chronic hepatitis C infection. The WHO also reports that approximately 399 thousand people die each year from Hepatitis C, mostly from cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.

The antiviral medicines can cure more than 95 percent of persons with hepatitis C infection, thereby reducing the risk of death from liver cancer and cirrhosis. However, WHO adds that there is currently no vaccine for hepatitis C.


Lionel messi - Tour n Cure Campaign- Press Photo


In February, Egypt launched the “Tour and Cure” medical tourism initiative. The initiative offers treatment to Hepatitis C patients from all over the world, with an effective and advanced complete treatment program with no waiting time and at a lower cost.

Argentine football player Lionel Messi launched and promoted the “Tour and Cure” campaign through a visit in February during which he explored the Great Pyramids of Giza and met with Egyptian children.