Egypt’s Deputy Prime Minister for Human Development and Minister of Health and Population, Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, said that it is time to work to eliminate the Hepatitis C virus around the world by 2030, to ensure that all our efforts can one day prevent the death of one person who dies every 30 seconds from a disease related to hepatitis.
The minister pointed out the need to work to accelerate the improvement of prevention, diagnosis and treatment to save lives and improve health outcomes, stressing that this is achievable, citing the Egyptian experience in the path to eliminating the hepatitis C virus.
This came in his speech on Tuesday, during his participation in the World Health Organization’s online symposium on hepatitis on the occasion of World Hepatitis Day 2024, and its theme this year is “Time to Act”, in the presence of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, and Hanan Al-Balkhi, Regional Director of the World Health Organization for the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Minister highlighted Egypt’s success in moving from being one of the highest rates of hepatitis C infection in the world, to one of the lowest rates, by reducing the prevalence of hepatitis C virus from 10% to 0.38% in about a decade.
Abdel Ghaffar also pointed to what Egypt achieved last year, by reaching the golden level, on the path to eliminating hepatitis C virus, as Egypt met the necessary requirements, which facilitate the reduction of new hepatitis C infections and deaths, to levels that enable the country to end the hepatitis C epidemic.
“Our dream does not stop here, as we plan to formulate a sustainability plan in cooperation with the World Health Organization, to maintain the successes, and develop an action plan, to reach the global impact goals for eliminating hepatitis C virus,” Abdel Ghaffar says.
