Health Minister Ahmed Emad Eddin announced the final results of the 2015 viral diseases survey during a press conference on Monday. The survey concentrated on people, no older than 59 years, who had Hepatitis B or C.
According to the survey, 4.4 out of every 100 Egyptians in this age bracket have Hepatitis C, while one in 100 has Hepatitis B. This corresponds to 800,000 patients with Hepatitis B and 3.5 million patients with Hepatitis C.
The results also showed that Hepatitis B and C infections were higher among men than among women.
The survey was conducted with a sample of 27,000 respondents in 25 governorates. It was financed by the US Agency for International Development, UNFPA and UNICEF.
For his part, Dr. Amr Qandil, the head of the Health Ministry’s Preventive Medicine Department, said Egypt was once classified as being within the average rate for countries infected with hepatic viruses. “Now we are classified as the first low-rate country in the Middle East,” he said.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
