A professor specializing in hepatitis has revealed that while 14 percent of Egyptians are infected with hepatitis C, more than 10 million Egyptians are unaware they are carrying the virus.
Yaha al-Shazly, a professor of the digestive system and liver diseases at Ain Shams University, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that 155.000 are infected with hepatitis C every year, 10 million of whom are not aware they are carrying the virus since statistics are made based on randomly selected samples.
The Health Ministry is surveying those as part of a plan to eliminate the virus in cooperation with 34 world organizations, said Shazly, a member of the ministry’s National Committee for the Control of Viral Hepatitis (NCCVH).
Shazly revealed that US-manufactured, anti-hepatitis drug Sovaldi will be available in the market in March, adding that all patients can manage to obtain the drug.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
