CAIRO – The Health and Population Ministry announced details related to the mechanisms and procedures for implementing the presidential initiative to eliminate Hepatitis C and early detection of non-communicable diseases, with the aim of transferring its relevant experience to 34 Arab and European countries, and with the participation of six international organisations.
This was announced during an international workshop that was held on Wednesday, in co-operation with the European Centre for Disease Control and Epidemiology (ECDC), to exchange experiences, knowledge and best practices in eradicating hepatitis C virus (HCV).
Spokesman for the Health Ministry Hossam Abdel Ghaffar said that the sessions, which were held on the first day of the workshop, dealt in detail with the rates of infection with the hepatitis C virus in Egypt since 2015.
This demonstrated Egypt’s great ability to exceed future expectations of infection rates and has effectively eliminated Hepatitis C, ahead of 2030, the spokesman said.
WHO’s global hepatitis strategy, endorsed by all WHO Member States, aims to reduce new hepatitis infections by 90% and deaths by 65% between 2016 and 2030.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2023, Egypt achieved unprecedented progress towards eliminating hepatitis C, becoming the first country to achieve “gold tier” status on the path to elimination of hepatitis C as per WHO criteria.
Achieving the gold tier means that Egypt has fulfilled the programmatic requirements that facilitate the reduction of new hepatitis C infections and deaths to levels that position the country to end the hepatitis C epidemic.
