WHO: Egypt treats a third of hepatitis C patients in the Eastern Mediterranean

On the occasion of World Hepatitis Day on 28 July, the WHO Regional Office said:C virusIt affects 360 million people worldwide, and kills 3,000 every day.

“In the Eastern Mediterranean region, viral hepatitis, especially hepatitis C, accelerated between 2016 and 2021,” the office said, adding that Egypt “is leading the way with a model based on primary health care, coordinating its national campaign and exposing 60 million people, treating 4 million .

The WHO added that Egypt “successfully treats about one-third of people infected with hepatitis C in the region, but still has problems in providing hepatitis services to those who need them in other countries.”

And about Egypt’s plan to achieve this, a spokesperson said Egyptian Ministry of Health Hossam Abdel Ghaffar said, “In 2011, work began on a new strategy to treat patients, and it began to be implemented in 2014 with the discovery of the drug Sovaldi, which was offered at 5% of the world price. The phase of treating patients for free, Egypt succeeded in producing it locally.

“In October 2018, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi launched an initiative to eliminate hepatitis C, and it aims to screen 60 million Egyptians, starting with those over 18 years old,” Abdel Ghaffar added in a statement to “Sky News Arabia”. .”

The spokesperson asserted that the initiative succeeded in detecting 2.2 million and 4,968 antibody carriers and the expansion of the initiative was initiated in December 2018 with the detection of 11 million and 694 thousand 612 students and 25,911 antibody carriers. End of 2021-2022 school year”.

Abdel Ghaffer added, “A sub-project of the initiative was launched in April 2019 to survey inpatients and was used in 459 hospitals, resulting in a survey of 152,159 patients and 6,102 hepatitis C infections, and 893 hepatitis B infections.”

A spokesperson for the Egyptian Ministry of Health added, “The initiative continued its subsidiary projects by inspecting psychiatric hospitals.drugs As of October 2018, 20,287 patients were surveyed and 1,431 hepatitis C and 89 hepatitis B infections were diagnosed.

He concluded his report, “This initiative extends to the early detection and treatment of primary liver cancer. Beginning in September 2019, the total number of patients attending screening centers reached 111,571 patients, and 1426 liver tumors were diagnosed. The number of cases requiring treatment with kinase-inhibitors reached 1080. .” condition”.