Egypt has retained its World Health Organisation (WHO) “Gold Tier” status on the path to eliminating hepatitis C, the WHO said on Wednesday, making it the first country to receive validation for maintaining the designation.
The recognition followed an assessment covering 2023 to 2025 and was endorsed by the WHO Regional Validation Committee on HIV, Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections in July 2026.
Egypt became the first country to reach Gold Tier status in 2023, after hepatitis C prevalence fell from about 10 percent to less than 0.38 per cent over a little more than a decade, according to the WHO.
The renewed status reflects efforts to sustain prevention, testing, treatment and follow-up services, while strengthening surveillance to guard against a resurgence, the agency said.
Those efforts build on Egypt’s “100 Million Seha” campaign, which screened more than 60 million people and treated more than 4.5 million for hepatitis C. The programme used locally produced direct-acting antiviral medicines.
Since the campaign, Egypt has shifted towards integrating screening and treatment into routine health services, including primary care and universal health insurance, the WHO said. It has also strengthened laboratory standards, surveillance and safety measures for blood and injections.
A national sustainability plan for viral hepatitis covering 2025 to 2030 is among the measures supporting the response.
The WHO said it had worked with Egypt throughout the campaign, providing technical guidance on prevention, testing, treatment and surveillance.
