“If they asked me to choose between feeding or treating people, I would treat them, of course. When we stand together, hand in hand, we can solve any problem,” President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi said during his closing speech at the sixth National Youth Conference at Cairo University in July. Al-Sisi's remarks at the two-day conference marked the introduction of the new healthcare system and highlighted its importance for the Egyptian people. During 2018 healthcare witnessed various developments and achievements, most notably the legislation of a new healthcare law and the implementation of its first phase which began rolling out in July. Al-Sisi added that the improvement of the medical system in Egypt requires huge sums, and that its full implementation requires the solidarity of all the institutions of society, including the Tahya Misr fund and the zakat charity fund, which mainly rely on donations and investors. The new medical system will be implemented over 15 years and will cost LE600 billion, Al-Sisi said. For years, Egypt's health system, which dates back to the 1960s, has been criticised as substandard. Consequently, a new law for health insurance was proposed to overcome shortcomings. The first phase included preliminary procedures for the full implementation of the law. In July, Bassam Radi, presidency spokesman, said the first phase included the elimination of patient waiting lists for surgery and critical medical interventions within six months, providing the needed stocks of infant formula and vaccines, and finishing the comprehensive survey and treatment of Hepatitis C virus. Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli said in August, during a ministerial meeting on the national project for all-out health insurance, that a comprehensive healthcare system is one of the most important national projects, noting that a ministerial committee will be closely following up and removing any obstacles. The new insurance law is scheduled to be implemented over six stages, starting this year and ending in 2032. The first stage comprises Port Said, Suez, Ismailia, North Sinai and South Sinai. The second includes Aswan, Marsa Matrouh, Qena, Luxor and the Red Sea. The third has Beheira, Alexandria, Sohag, Kafr Al-Sheikh and Damietta. The fourth consists of Assiut, the New Valley, Minya, Beni Sweif and Fayoum. The fifth embraces Daqahliya, Gharbiya, Sharqiya and Menoufiya, while the sixth includes Cairo, Giza and Qalioubiya. Another achievement in 2018 in the health sector was the initiative 100 Million Seha (health in Arabic), one of the largest medical examinations in history, that Al-Sisi announced in February to eradicate Hepatitis C from Egypt by 2020. Egypt has the highest prevalence of Hepatitis C in the world and the three-stage plan involves a massive campaign that involves the free screening of 50 million people. In addition to Hepatitis C, patients will be tested for hypertension and diabetes. The campaign is scheduled to run from October 2018 to April 2019 in all governorates. The first stage, which ended in November, targeted 17 million people in the governorates of Alexandria, Port Said, Qalioubiya, Fayoum, Beheira, Damietta, Assiut, Marsa Matrouh and South Sinai. The second stage, between December 2018 and February 2019, is in Cairo, Ismailia, Suez, Luxor, Aswan, Sohag, Menoufiya, North Sinai, the Red Sea, Beni Sweif and Kafr Al-Sheikh. Between March and April 2019 residents of Egypt's remaining seven governorates — Giza, Gharbiya, Daqahliya, Sharqiya, Minya, Qena and the New Valley — will be screened. People 18 years old and above are eligible for the medical examination. Health Minister Hala Zayed has urged people to ensure all eligible members of their families are screened since the examination documents will be needed when completing government and other official papers. Khaled Megahed, Health Ministry spokesman, said a new record had been set in the number of Egyptians scanned in the 100 Million Seha. The total number of those examined reached 14.2 million up to the first week of December. Around 500,000 Egyptians are being examined daily since the beginning of the second phase that started in December, Megahed told Al-Ahram Weekly. Megahed said about 10 million citizens were examined for Hepatitis C within the 90 days of the first phase. Zayed earlier said that the tests revealed that 4.5 per cent of those examined as part of the campaign's first phase tested positive for Hepatitis C. At least one in every 10 individuals aged between 15 and 59 is infected in Egypt, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), and 90,000 new cases are reported annually, placing a huge economic burden on the country. A campaign launched three years ago succeeded in treating two million patients and ended waiting lists. The goal of the recent initiative is nothing less than to end the illness in Egypt, which has the highest rate of Hepatitis C infection in the world. It kills an estimated 40,000 Egyptians each year. A number of international organisations have praised 100 Million Seha. During his visit to Cairo to monitor the undergoing scanning, World Bank Health and Nutrition Manager in the Middle East North Africa Region Ernest Massiah said they were looking to convey the Egyptian experience to stop Hepatitis C in all countries around the world, including in Africa. The World Bank is providing Egypt with technical support, $133 million for the screening campaign and $129 million for Hepatitis C medication. Megahed said that Egypt managed to eliminate waiting lists for curing Hepatitis C by increasing the virus' treatment units from 53 to 189. “We depend on locally-produced Sovaldi made in 20 factories. We successfully reduced its price by 86 per cent compared to the international price. Ninety-six per cent have been cured,” Megahed said. A one-month course of locally-produced Sovaldi, containing 28 tablets, costs LE2,000. It is for free for the needy, but has until now been available only in state-owned hospitals, not pharmacies. Imported Sovaldi costs an average of LE14,000. Treatment lasts three months. In recent years the government has been working on increasing health expenditure. In the 2017-2018 budget, health spending reached LE12.4 billion, up from LE6.8 billion in 2014-2015. Moreover, 67 hospitals and 44 health centres were set up in the governorates during the year. Egypt is now working on manufacturing blood plasma because the state spends large amounts of money to import it annually. In September Al-Sisi urged the minister of health to learn from international experience in collecting and manufacturing plasma in Egypt to meet international standards in order to obtain self-sufficiency. He also directed the officials concerned to provide modern medical technology for blood transfusions and to disseminate the idea of blood donations. There are 28 regional centres for blood services nationwide and efforts are underway to set up blood plasma centres, Zayed said in press statements. She added that all Health Ministry-affiliated blood transfusion centres are internationally accredited and electronically linked to the regional centre to determine exact blood stockpiles. Out of 28 regional centres for blood in the governorates, 11 were selected, in accordance with global standards, to be included in the national project for plasma manufacturing, Megahed said.
