On October 9, WHO announced that Egypt had made “unprecedented progress” towards eliminating hepatitis C.
- According to the WHO, Egypt became the first country to achieve “gold tier” status on the path to elimination of hepatitis C as per the global health body criteria.
- The “gold tier” status to reach the stated goal of eliminating hepatitis C includes meeting specific criteria such as ensuring 100% blood and injection safety, maintaining a minimum of 150 needles/syringes per year for people who inject drugs (PWID), diagnosis of over 80% of people living with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV), treating of over 70% of individuals diagnosed with HCV, and the establishing of a sentinel surveillance programme for hepatitis sequelae, including liver cancer.
Hepatitis C
- Hepatitis C is a viral infection that affects the liver. It can cause both acute (short term) and chronic (long term) illness. It can be life-threatening.
There is no vaccine for hepatitis C, but it can be treated with antiviral medications.
- Though unscreened blood and blood products and inadequate sterilisation of medical equipment in health-care settings are two important routes of virus transmission, the most common route of virus spread is through unsafe injection practices such as sharing needles, syringes, or any other equipment to inject drugs.
- Direct-acting antiviral medicines (DAAs) can cure more than 95% of persons with hepatitis C infection, but access to diagnosis and treatment is low.
- Hepatitis C infection is unevenly distributed globally, with these regions accounting for the most — European (22%), South-East Asia (20%) and the Eastern Mediterranean (17%).
