Staff report: CAIRO, July 16, 2018 - Minister of Health and Population Dr Hala Zayed held a meeting on Sunday with members of the National Committee for Control of Viral Hepatitis (NCCVH), to define the steps for a rapid implementation of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi's instructions to overcome the hepatitis C virus (HCV). The meeting was attended by Dr Maha el-Rabat, former Health Minister and representative of the Tahya Misr (the Long Live Egypt) Fund. During the meeting, Minister Zayed said that she had agreed with the fund officials that Long Live Egypt would buy the medicines for treating HCV and would supply the local market with the drugs at affordable prices. The minister added that the state's aim was to undertake a surveyof 45 million citizens, to detect HCV in its early stages and to provide free treatment to those infected with the virus. Dr Zayed said it was important to set up a unified system for registering citizens who were receiving treatment or who have been surveyed so as not to have duplicate records for either treatment or survey. Dr Zayed recommended to Dr Wahid Doss, Chairman of the NCCVH, that there should be coordination with the World Health Organisation (WHO), the World Bank (WB) andthe United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), to draw up performance indicators, in preparation for thescientific and international documentation of Egypt's project to overcome HCV, since it is a pilot project and a model for the rest of the world, in surveying and treating millions of citizens suffering from the virus.
