With one of the highest prevalence of hepatitis C (HCV) in the world, Egypt began a heroic journey to completely eliminate the disease by 2023. Through its Global Access Program, Roche worked with Egypt’s government officials and healthcare agencies to provide the country with robust and dependable HCV diagnostic solutions to help Egypt manage and achieve its ambitious goal.
Egypt’s high rate of HCV cases stemmed from unsafe IV injection practices for the treatment of schistosomiasis, a disease caused by parasitic worms, from the 1950s to the 1980s.1,2 In 2015, it was estimated that 6.3% of the population was living with HCV.3 Faced with tremendous healthcare and economic burden, in 2006 Egypt’s Ministry of Health and Population (MOHP) created the National Committee for the Control of Viral Hepatitis (NCCVH) to help combat this vast epidemic.4
With assistance from the World Health Organization (WHO), U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and other stakeholders, the MOHP released the “Plan of Action for the Prevention, Care & Treatment of Viral Hepatitis, Egypt, 2014-2018” as a set of guidelines to battle HCV and other forms of hepatitis.4