Millions flock to free tests as Egypt seeks to eradicate hepatitis C

MIT NAMA: When Houaida Mabrouk heard about a government campaign that offers free hepatitis C screenings, she hesitated, afraid of testing positive. But after many from her community started visiting health clinics to get checked, she changed her mind.

“I thought, ‘I should go too’,” Mabrouk said, speaking at a clinic in the Mit Nama village near Cairo before learning she did not have the virus. Egypt is carrying out an unprecedented campaign to detect and treat the disease in a bid to eliminate it by 2022. It aims to test the entire adult population — about 50 million people.

Nearly 4.4 per cent of adult Egyptians are infected and about 40,000 die of the disease every year, making it the country’s third leading cause of death, according to the World Bank.

The campaign, which runs from October to April, also tests for diabetes and high blood pressure.

“They are eliminating Egypt’s two biggest health problems: Virus C and all the danger factors including the basic non-communicable diseases,” said Jean Jabbour, the World Health Organization’s representative in Egypt.

Hepatitis C is a liver disease caused by a blood-borne virus. Most cases can be cured with antiviral medicine, but many do not initially show symptoms. If left untreated, the virus can cause cirrhosis or liver cancer.

In Egypt, many were infected decades ago when poorly sterilised needles were used as part of a national treatment campaign against schistosomiasis, a disease caused by parasitic worms.

Most donated blood is still not effectively screened, according to a recent World Bank report.

Egypt is carrying out an unprecedented campaign to detect and treat the disease in a bid to eliminate it by 2022. It aims to test the entire adult population — about 50 million people