CAIRO, Sept 30, 2018 - President Abdel Fattah El Sisi's initiative to eliminate Hepatitis C by the advent of 2020 and detect non-communicable diseases will be launched today, Health and Population Minister Dr Hala Zayed said on Sunday. Addressing a news conference held at the ministry's premises on Sunday, the minister expounded the importance of the presidential initiative, noting that it aims mainly at freeing the country of the infectious disease Hepatitis C and reducing the fatalities from diabetes, hypertension and obesity, the three major non-communicable diseases which account for 70% of mortality. Attending the press conference were the cabinet ministers of local development and youth, representatives of the World Bank and the World Health Organisation (WHO) and officials from a number of the departments concerned. Noting that this initiative is the first and largest such healthcare scheme in the history of humanity, Minister Zayed said that the executive plan features geographical distribution of the campaign's thrust and time frames for accomplishing the tasks in each stage. Elaborating, Dr Zayed said that the initiative will be carried out over three stages with a duration of 7 months each and that each stage will be devoted to a group of governorates, according to the Middle East News Agency (MENA) coverage of the press conference. The first stage, which will last from October 2018 until April 2019 and will target the nine governorates of South Sinai, Matrouh, Port Said, Alexandria, Beheira, Damietta, Qalubiya, Fayyoum and Assiut. The 11 governorates of North Sinai, the Red Sea, Cairo, Ismailia, Suez, Kafr el-Sheikh, Menoufia, Beni Sueif, Sohag, Aswan and Luxor will be the scope of the second stage which will last from December 2018 until February 2019, she said. The third and final stage, which will be carried out in March and April 2019, will target the remaining seven governorates of the New Valley, Giza, Gharbiya, Daqahliya, Sharqiya, Minya and Qena, Dr Zayed said. The WHO representative in Egypt, Jean Jabbour, said that President Sisi's initiative made Egypt a leading country all over the world in the health field, pointing out that WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the launch and success of the comprehensive health insurance initiative in Egypt has positioned the country on the world map of comprehensive health awareness and helped it reduce economic burdens on citizens. In statements to MENA on the sidelines of health minister's news conference, Mr Jabbour also noted Egypt's success in ending the waiting lists for critical surgeries from October 2014 until October 2016, lauding it as an unprecedented achievement across the world. Defining the goals of the initiative, Minister Zayed said they include the early detection of Hepatitis C to be followed by evaluation and treatment of cases through the services of the Health Ministry units specialised in the treatment of hepatotropic virus diseases. Concomitantly, the presidential initiative aims at the early detection of diabetes, hypertension and obesity and offering remedial action to patients through the services of specialised units at public hospitals nationwide, she said. Citizens aged above 18 years old from both sexes who had not tested for or been treated from HCV will benefit from the initiative, the minister said. She added that the services offered in the initiative include raising health awareness among citizens, Hepatitis C tests, diabetes analysis and hypertension measurement in addition to measurement of height and weight. Each of the working groups taking part in the initiative includes a physician, a pharmacist and a dentist together with a nursing team and a data processor, the minister said.
