Cairo, Khartoum reach deals to eradicate Hepatitis C, Diabetes in Sudan

CAIRO – 18 January 2019: Egypt and Sudan to reach a number of agreements in health sector by March, to eliminate Hepatitis C and Diabetes in Sudan, according a statement from Egypt’s health ministry Thursday.

During a Thursday meeting between Egypt’s Minister of Health Hala Zayed and her Sudanese counterpart Al-Khair Al-Nour Al-Mubarak, both sides discussed boosting the health relations between both countries, the statement added.

The meeting, which was attended by several Sudanese and Egyptians officials along with diplomats from World Health Organization (WHO) and the Arab League, discussed several issues for signing the anticipated agreements next March.

Zayed affirmed that Egypt and Sudan have a joint strategy to boosting relations in this regard, adding that Egypt is keen to move its experience eliminating Hepatitis C and Diabetes in Sudan, especially after the successes the anti- Hepatitis C initiative launched in Egypt since 2014.

Egypt, under President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi's rule, has launched the "100 Million Seha" campaign in October 2018 to detect and treat the infected people with chronic diseases for free, Khaled Megahed, Health Ministry spokesman said.

Around 27 million citizens have undergone examination of Hepatitis C since the beginning of the campaign, he added.

On Jan. 16, Zayed announced that Egypt would launch an initiative to treat African people from Hepatitis C, starting with the Nile Basin countries with an estimated 3.7 million hepatitis C patients, representing 30 percent of the total number of infected people in Africa.