WHO Validation and Global Benchmark
Egypt has secured formal validation from the World Health Organization for maintaining its Gold Tier status in hepatitis C elimination. According to the World Health Organization, this milestone makes Egypt the first country worldwide to both achieve and sustain the stringent global public health target. The official endorsement follows an in-depth evaluation of health data spanning from 2023 through 2025 by the WHO Regional Validation Committee.
The sustained achievement places Egypt ahead of major industrial and economic powers, including the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Russia, France, and Germany. Public health experts note that the country’s trajectory represents one of the most rapid turnarounds in infectious disease control ever documented internationally.
The Scale of the Nationwide Campaign
Between 2013 and 2023, Egypt achieved a dramatic reduction in hepatitis C prevalence, driving infection rates down from approximately 10 percent to under 0.38 percent. This progress was anchored by the nationwide “100 million seha” (healthy lives) campaign, which combined robust political commitment with large-scale public health mobilization.
Under the initiative, authorities tested more than 60 million individuals and delivered curative medical treatment to over 4.5 million patients. A pivotal factor in this success was the reliance on locally manufactured direct-acting antiviral medications, which removed supply chain vulnerabilities and ensured broad affordability.
Transition to Long-Term Sustainability
Having successfully executed mass screening drives, Egypt has transitioned its public health strategy toward long-term institutional prevention. The World Health Organization highlighted that viral hepatitis care has now been integrated directly into the nation’s primary healthcare network and universal health insurance framework.
This integration is governed by the 2025–2030 National Sustainability Plan, designed to strengthen surveillance systems, maintain high-impact prevention services, and prevent any potential resurgence of the virus across the population.