Egypt News: Egypt became the first country to keep the World Health Organization’s Gold Tier status on the path to eliminating hepatitis C, after WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus handed the certificate to Health Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar in Cairo on 14 October 2026. The review of the Egypt hepatitis C programme covered 2023 to 2025.
Key facts
- WHO confirmed on 14 October 2026 that Egypt had retained Gold Tier status, first awarded in October 2023; no other country has yet been validated for keeping it.
- The certificate was presented on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the WHO Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean (RC73), held in Cairo from 13 to 15 October.
- A WHO regional validation committee on HIV, hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections endorsed the assessment in July 2026.
- Egypt diagnosed 87% of people living with hepatitis C and treated 93% of those diagnosed, above WHO thresholds of 80% and 70%.
What does Gold Tier mean for Egypt hepatitis C patients?
It is a milestone, not a finish line. WHO’s “path to elimination” tiers reward countries that diagnose and treat most of the people carrying the virus, even before transmission reaches elimination levels. The virus has not disappeared, Ahram Online stressed in its report on 15 October. What WHO validated this time was harder to show: that Egypt kept its results after the mass campaigns ended.
The starting point was severe. Until the 2010s Egypt had the world’s highest hepatitis C prevalence, about 10% of the population, a burden linked to 20th-century public health campaigns that reused unsterilised needles, The New Arab noted. Prevalence then fell to 0.38% in just over a decade.
| Indicator | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| People screened, “100 Million Healthy Lives” campaign (since 2018) | More than 60 million (68 million per the minister) | WHO via MENA; The New Arab |
| Patients treated | About 4.5 million | Ahram Online; Egypt Independent |
| Diagnosis / treatment coverage | 87% / 93% | WHO data cited by Ahram Online |
| Cure rate among those treated | 99% | Ahram Online |
| Blood units screened, 2023 to 2025 | More than 5.5 million | Ahram Online |
| Hepatitis C deaths vs 2018 | Down 54% | Ahram Online |
The two screening figures do not match. WHO material quoted by Egypt’s state agency MENA gives “more than 60 million”, while The New Arab reported that Abdel-Ghaffar cited 68 million at the Cairo press conference. Both describe the same campaign, and the gap may reflect different cut-off dates.
From campaign to routine care
The 2023 award came at the peak of a national screening drive. The 2026 review asked a different question. Could Egypt fold testing and treatment into ordinary clinics?
According to WHO, as reported by Egypt Independent and the Egyptian Gazette, the answer was yes. Hepatitis C services now run through primary healthcare and the Universal Health Insurance System. Laboratory standards, disease surveillance and blood and injection safety were all strengthened, and Ahram Online counted 536 million auto-disable syringes supplied between 2023 and 2025. Among people aged 15 to 59, prevalence fell from 0.38% to 0.28% over the same period. A national plan for 2025 to 2030 is meant to keep the trend going.
Tedros praised Egypt’s “sustained political commitment and investment in public health” in a post on X, adding that the next goal is to “eliminate hepatitis C for good”. Egypt was certified malaria-free by WHO in 2024.
A regional meeting under budget pressure
The award came at a difficult moment for WHO in the region. RC73, which met under the slogan “Together for a Healthier Future: Action, Access, Equity”, heard WHO commit to protecting health delivery despite a 14% budget cut, according to a WHO regional release republished by the polio eradication initiative GPEI. Executive sponsors of Afghanistan’s polio programme from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates met on the sidelines. Afghanistan and Pakistan are the last two countries where wild poliovirus is endemic.
Our view: the Egypt hepatitis C results came from treating millions of people with locally produced direct-acting antivirals, which kept costs within reach of a middle-income budget, as the Egyptian Gazette and The New Arab reported. That model deserves study across BRICS and the wider Global South, where hepatitis C is still largely undiagnosed. More coverage is in our Healthcare section and our Science pages.
FAQ
Has Egypt eliminated hepatitis C?
Not yet. Gold Tier recognises progress on the path to elimination; Tedros says the next goal is to “eliminate hepatitis C for good”.
Why is the 2026 recognition different from 2023?
In 2023 Egypt was the first country to reach Gold Tier. In 2026 it became the first to be validated for keeping it, based on data from 2023 to 2025.
What was the “100 Million Healthy Lives” campaign?
A national screening and treatment drive launched in 2018 that tested tens of millions of Egyptians and treated about 4.5 million hepatitis C patients for free.
Sources: Ahram Online; Egypt Independent (MENA); The New Arab; Egyptian Gazette; WHO EMRO (2023 validation); GPEI / WHO EMRO on RC73; SANA on RC73.
