EGYPT ATTEMPTS TO TACKLE HEPATITIS C PROBLEM

At least 5 million people in Egypt are infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV), U.N. Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) reports, giving the country one of the highest prevalence rates of the virus in the world.

Egypt's very high prevalence of HCV is largely the legacy of government campaigns before 1980 to treat rural populations for schistosomiasis, a water-borne disease that was endemic in Egypt. The treatment campaigns, which involved repeated injections, did not follow rigorous hygiene standards, leading to the spread of HCV.

The health ministry's hepatitis committee is now making plans to prevent and treat the disease. No vaccine is available for HCV, but it can be treated with a combination of drugs if detected early enough. HCV is usually treated with interferon, according to IRIN. However, the type of HCV most prevalent in Egypt is resistant to the drug roughly 40 percent of the time.

Although research is ongoing, no more effective treatment is yet available. Nevertheless, the committee has succeeded in brokering a deal with drugmakers to supply the drug government hospitals for one-third of the usual price, IRIN reports. Roche markets interferon as Roferon-A, and Schering has an interferon product called Intron A.

But even with reduced drug prices, the financial burden of Egypt's HCV problem is huge. The committee estimates that a year's worth of treatment costs approximately $4,500, according to IRIN.