Jeff Black | Berlin

CAIRO, 7 February 2007 (IRIN) – At least five million people in Egypt are infected
with the hepatitis C virus (HCV), a new committee formed by the country’s
government to tackle the disease has said. It added that action must be taken now
to combat rising mortality.

“The annual infection rate is more than 70,000 new cases, of which at least 35,000
would have chronic hepatitis C,” said Dr Manal el-Sayed, Professor of Paediatrics at
Cairo’s Ain Shams University and member of the National Hepatitis Committee
which is currently formulating an action plan to fight the disease.

Hepatitis C is a lethal virus which can cause liver cirrhosis and cancer. Egypt has
one of the highest prevalence rates of the virus in the world, say specialists. An
estimated 10-15 percent of the population, some 8-10 million people, are carrying
hepatitis C antibodies, meaning that they either have or at one time had the virus.
Five million of those are actively infected, according to government figures.

Full article here.