Egypt helps test 30K African citizens for Hepatitis C

CAIRO – 7 January 2019: A total of 30,632 African citizens from South Sudan, Chad and Eritrea have been tested for Hepatitis C and 376 citizens have been provided free treatment, according to Egypt’s Ministry of Health on Monday.

The ministry added that nearly 10333 citizens have been tested in South Sudan when Egypt’s first medical team was sent to the country in September 2019.

This comes in light of Egypt’s presidency of the African Union, and its intention to open centers to treat Hepatitis C in a number of African countries. The initiative also aims at transferring Egypt’s pioneering experience “100 Million Healthy Lives” to eliminate the virus C and detect non communicable diseases.

In May, Egypt's Health Minister Hala Zayed has announced sending 25 tons of medicine and other medical requirements to Sudan, in addition to 50,000 Hepatitis C treatment bottles to Eritrea and 30 packages of various medicines to Djibouti.

Zayed also noted during a meeting with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli that the ministry sent medicine for the treatment of Malaria and transferred Egyptian expertise to African countries to treat Malaria, Hepatitis C and AIDS.

After achieving great success in Egypt, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi ordered intensifying efforts aimed to transfer Egypt's health and medical expertise to other African countries, according to a statement issued by presidential spokesperson Bassam Rady.

In April, the Ministry of Health issued a statement reporting that the ministry started setting up four medical care centers in Africa starting with Chad. The project comes in implementation of an initiative launched by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi to treat 1 million African nationals from virus C.

Zayed noted that African nationals living in Egypt will also be treated as part of the initiative.

Spokesperson for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed told Egypt Today in April that the Health Ministry is establishing 13 centers to treat African people from Hepatitis C (HCV).
Megahed added that more than 45 Million citizens have been tested so far as part of "100 Million Healthy Lives" campaign.

In 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.

The Arab Health Ministers Council announced that the 100 Million Healthy Lives is a “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.

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