Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly reviewed a report by Health and Population Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar on Egypt’s efforts to maintain its World Health Organisation (WHO) gold-tier status for eliminating hepatitis C.
Madbouly said the achievement reflected co-ordination across state institutions, backed by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and the integration of prevention and treatment efforts.
WHO provided official validation of the maintenance of Egypt’s Gold Tier status on the path to hepatitis C elimination on 14 October.
Egypt is the first country to achieve this recognition. The validation follows a thorough assessment of the period 2023 to 2025 and endorsement by the WHO Regional Validation Committee on HIV, Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections in July 2026.
This achievement builds on Egypt’s initial gold-tier certification in October 2023.
Egypt is the first country to develop and implement a sustainability plan to maintain progress in reducing hepatitis C infections and deaths, the report said.
Egypt once had one of the world’s highest hepatitis C infection rates, with the disease affecting 10% of the population in 2008.
The presidential initiative, launched in 2018, screened nearly 63 million people aged 12 and above and completed treatment for four million patients.
The country also maintained WHO standards for blood and injection safety and harm reduction.
A WHO regional verification committee reviewed Egypt’s progress over the past three years.
The report said 5.5 million blood units were screened between 2023 and 2025, while 536 million safe injection syringes were procured, with no reuse reported in healthcare facilities.
During the same period, an additional 16.5 million people were screened, raising diagnostic coverage from 86.7% in 2023 to 87.3% in 2025.
This led to the identification of 49,000 additional cases and their linkage to care.
Hepatitis C prevalence among people aged 15–59 fell from 0.38% to 0.28%, while related deaths declined by 54% in 2026 compared with 2018.
The report attributed the progress to political commitment, evidence-based planning, public awareness, healthcare infrastructure, skilled medical personnel, domestic production of affordable medicines and the mobilisation of national resources.
