RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Egypt have decided to enhance bilateral cooperation in the healthcare sector with a specific focus on eliminating Hepatitis C as globally Pakistan with 10 million Hepatitis-C patients is the top infected country.

The development came here on Friday during a meeting of the Federal Minister for National Health Services and Regulations Mustafa Kamal and the Egyptian Ambassador to Pakistan, Dr Ihab Mohamed Abdel hamid.

During the meeting, both sides discussed boosting technical collaboration and medical tourism. The meeting underscored a mutual commitment to pursue joint strategies and knowledge exchange to tackle key health challenges affecting both nations.

A core highlight of the discussions was the proposal for joint initiatives to eradicate Hepatitis C. The two sides explored the possibility of launching collaborative programmes that draw on Egypt’s successful experience in controlling and significantly reducing Hepatitis C prevalence in recent years.

The meeting also touched upon expanding technical cooperation and promoting medical tourism between the two countries. Both dignitaries emphasised the value of sharing expertise, training health professionals, and improving healthcare systems through coordinated efforts.

As part of this enhanced collaboration, a delegation of Egyptian health experts is expected to visit Pakistan in the coming months. The delegation will provide technical assistance and share best practices to support Pakistan’s ongoing efforts to combat Hepatitis C and strengthen healthcare delivery.

Kamal welcomed the growing partnership and expressed optimism that this collaboration would yield tangible benefits for both countries. “Egypt’s successful public health interventions, particularly in Hepatitis C control, offer valuable lessons. We look forward to working closely with our Egyptian counterparts to replicate similar success in Pakistan,” he stated.

According to officials, Pakistan has the largest number of hepatitis-C patients in the world, with 10 million of the global 60 million cases and the government in close collaboration with the global partners needs to take all possible steps in eliminating the virus from the country. Officials also stressed the urgent need for collective action to combat Hepatitis C, a significant public health challenge facing Pakistan.

The officials further highlighted its dire consequences saying: “If we do not act, Pakistan will face over 11 million HCV cases by 2035, leading to 500,000 plus liver cirrhosis cases, over 100,000 cases of liver cancer and 130,000 HCV-related deaths.” According to senior health ministry officials, the economic impact would be a loss of over $285 million annually in case the authorities are not addressing the challenge.

Pakistan is facing another dilemma as of 2021, only 16 percent of Hepatitis C cases in the country received treatment, with testing and treatment access being the key challenges.

To deal with the growing challenge of Hepatitis C, the federal government in collaboration with provincial governments, has launched the Prime Minister’s Programme for the Elimination of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections with allocating Rs34.15 billion over the next three years. The provincial governments in this connection will contribute Rs33.61 billion, bringing the total funding for the initiative to Rs67.77 billion.

The government of Pakistan has started implemented a number of programmes to address the HCV, including establishing a National Technical Advisory Group (TAG) for hepatitis control, developing national and provincial strategic frameworks, ensuring the availability of affordable generic Direct-Acting Antivirals (DAAs) and advocating for nationwide scaling up of vaccination, screening, testing and treatment efforts.

The officials stressed that further global support and technical assistance were needed to scale up efforts of eradicating HCV. “We seek support in developing detailed plans for hepatitis elimination, strengthening monitoring and healthcare systems, training healthcare workers and expanding national software and logistics. We also call for international collaboration to help us achieve our targets,” he added.

The PM’s aide said the programme aimed to reach 50 per cent of the eligible population for screening, testing and treatment within three years. They urged international partners to help Pakistan achieve 100 per cent coverage to ensure that the country meets the global HCV elimination targets before 2030.

According to World Health Organization (WHO), globally 60 million people are living with chronic hepatitis C infections. While there is no vaccine, the disease can be cured with highly effective and curative short-course treatments that last 8–12 weeks.

Globally, however, four out of five people living with hepatitis C do not know that they are infected. Unless treated or cured, the infection can cause liver disease and cancer.

Egypt has diagnosed 87 per cent of people living with hepatitis C and provided 93 per cent of those diagnosed with curative treatment, exceeding the WHO gold tier targets of diagnosing at least 80 per cent of people living with hepatitis C and providing treatment to at least 70 per cent of the diagnosed people.

Starting in 2014 and reinforced in 2018, the president of Egypt introduced a countrywide campaign to eliminate hepatitis C that offered free testing and treatment for hepatitis C.

The “100 million seha” (100 million healthy lives) campaign resulted in the testing of over 60 million people and treatment of more than 4.1 million people. Locally manufactured direct-acting antiviral treatments were a key factor in the campaign’s remarkable success – a 99 per cent hepatitis C cure rate among people who received treatment.