Egypt will launch the largest medical screening campaign for Hepatitis C in the world by applying a new initiative to detect and treat Hepatitis C to almost 50 million citizens, Presidency spokesman Bassam Rady announced.
The initiative follows the “Tahya Masr” fund President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi announced in February which seeks to completely eliminate Hepatitis C in Egypt by 2020.
The campaign will run from October 2018 until April 2019, targeting people aged 19 to 59 who will be scanned through PCR tests. Those testing positive for the disease are expected to undergo further check ups and will be provided free medication.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) warned citizens against refusing to be scanned.
Minister of Health Hala Zayed stressed that people take their families to examination, pointing out that “certificates of examination” will be a document required by governmental work and official papers.
The Tahya Masr Fund (Long Live Egypt) announced in an August statement that the Hepatitis C virus in Egypt will be completely eradicated by 2020, through one of the largest medical examinations in human history.
The Fund said that 45 million people will be screened in collaboration with the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) to prevent the disease and make Egypt quit their list of endemic diseases.
Egypt has the highest rate of Hepatitis C in the world, first surfacing in the 1950s due to unsterilized injections. The highly-infectious blood-borne virus kills an estimated 40,000 Egyptians a year, and at least 1 in 10 of the population aged 15-59 are infected, according to the WHO.
