The World Bank on Wednesday approved a new $530m project to support Egypt’s national goal of improving public health care, including scaling up Egypt’s groundbreaking Hepatitis C programme and supporting the new Universal Health Insurance System.
The new project aims to “improve services at 600 primary healthcare facilities and 27 hospitals, support Egypt’s family planning efforts through a $35m intervention, scale up the community health workers programme to promote better health and nutrition, screen 1 million units of blood annually, and expand the screening of Hepatitis C for around 35 million people and treatment of an estimated 1.5 million patients.”
“This project is about investing in people,” said Asad Alam, WBG director for Egypt, Yemen, and Djibouti, adding that improving Egypt’s healthcare system “will strengthen the country’s human capital and further build the foundation for growth and prosperity.”
Meanwhile, Minister of Health and Population Hala Zaid said that the project aims to tackle Egypt’s top health agenda priorities, which include “eliminating Hepatitis C; strengthening community, primary, and secondary healthcare services; and addressing public health concerns including blood safety, family planning, and non-communicable diseases.”
Zaid added, “The project will allow us to achieve our goal of ensuring that every Egyptian has access to the quality healthcare that will enable them to lead prosperous lives and contribute to Egypt’s development.”
