Cairo: Dr. Ahmed Medhat Nasr, chief of the Egyptian Society of Hepatitis and Viral Liver Diseases, stressed that the number of Egyptians infected with liver diseases reached about 14 million Egyptians, with the rate of infection in some villages reaching 40%-50% of the total adults over the age of 40. Such statistics indicate, according to Dr. Nasr, that the hepatitis virus “C” has nearly entered every house in Egypt, stressing that the modern statistics prove the existence of complications that arise from the infection of the virus such as chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis of the liver, liver cancer and coma. These results were released during the opening of the 12th Conference for Liver and Digestive System Diseases at the University of Assiyut. On the other hand, said Abdul Ghani Abdul Hamid Suleiman, head of gastroenterology and hepatology at the University of Assiut, liver cancer is the second most common cancer in Egypt and is one of the leading causes of death among citizens. He pointed out that half of the deaths of the Egyptians between the ages of 25 to 50 years are due to the viral disease which attacks the liver and associated complications and are usually found without complaints by the patient and may unfold only during a clinical examination or medical test. Maher Al Assal, the head of the Faculty of Medicine that 12% of Egypt's population are infected with virus “C” and pointed out that the incidence in Egypt amounted to about 4% in the world according to modern scientific studies of the Academy of Scientific Research. **reporting by Mohamed Abdel Salam BM
