Most of HCV patients did not know until 100 Million Healthy Initiative

CAIRO – 13 October 2019: With an aim to completely eliminate hepatitis C from Egypt by 2022, Egypt has managed to examine more than 60 million citizens and provided free nationwide treatment through government centers for more than one million citizens struck by the virus.

“I did not even know I had the Hepatitis C virus,” one of the patients told Egypt Today in an interview. “Thanks to the ‘100 Million Healthy Lives’ initiative, I received the necessary medication and got cured, completely free of charge.”

After conducting a series of interviews with patients that were treated or are being treated as part of the initiative, Egypt Today found out that most of the patients did not suffer symptoms or knew they had the virus.

Medical experts recommend continuous checkups in order to identify diseases for easier treatment, pointing out that disease ignorance poses serious threats and spreads viruses.

On March, the Health Ministry launched the last phase of the “100 Million Healthy Lives” initiative, which aims at screening more than 52 million citizens for hepatitis C (HCV).

The third phase was launched in governorates of Giza, Gharbia, Sharqia, Dakahlia, Wadi Gadid, Qena, and Menya, targeting around 23.4 million citizens, said Minister of Health Hala al-Saeed in a statement on Friday.

The Arab Health Ministers Council announced that the 100 Million Healthy Lives is “successful approach”, calling for applying it in other Arab countries, the Minister added in the statement.

The number of medical staff, assigned for the third phase, reached 8,520 groups, she continued.

Last week, the Minister announced that more than 30.3 million citizens have been screened for HCV in the first two phases nationwide.

The initiative has been launched in October 2018 under the auspices of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and due to end in April 2019 after targeting more than 45 million citizens. The Health Ministry has vowed to completely eliminate the disease from Egypt 2022.