Over 1 million students tested for hepatitis C in primary schools

Egypt’s Ministry of Health and Population announced on Monday that 1.263 million students had been tested free of charge for hepatitis C virus.

The campaign is under the umbrella of the “100 Million Health” initiative, since the launch of the initiative during the current academic year until Sunday, 2nd January. The campaign’s work will continue for 5 years in a row for primary school students.

Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, the official spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Population, stated that this year, the initiative aims to examine 2 million and 200 thousand primary school students during the current academic year, in addition to providing treatment for the detected cases.

For his part, Mohamed Dahi, the Chairperson of the General Authority for Health Insurance, indicated that the examination is conducted for students through 412 trained medical teams affiliated with the authority, where the examination is carried out using rapid reagents.

He also stressed cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Technical Education, and Al-Azhar to organize the campaign’s work, in a way that does not affect the educational process and the implementation of the campaign controls, which include the consent of parents to conduct examination and treatment.