What changed
Egypt has become the first country to sustain the World Health Organization’s Gold Tier status on the path to eliminating hepatitis C. The renewal followed a review of progress from 2023 to 2025, endorsed by the WHO Regional Validation Committee in July 2026.
Egypt first earned the status in 2023. Since then, officials say:
- Hepatitis C prevalence among people aged 15 to 59 fell from 0.38% to 0.28%.
- More than 5.5 million blood units were screened.
- Some 536 million auto-disable and safe syringes were provided.
- Disease-related mortality fell 54% compared with 2018.
Why it matters
The harder part of disease elimination is often what comes after the headline result. Egypt’s renewal shows that the country kept prevention, testing, treatment, follow-up and surveillance operating after its first WHO recognition.
That work is designed to stop hepatitis C from returning as a larger public-health problem. It also links detected cases to free care, so screening is not left as a one-off exercise with nowhere to go next.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Egypt’s experience showed how investment in one disease can strengthen wider health systems. That is the useful lesson here: the achievement rests on routine infrastructure, from safer blood supplies and injections to early diagnosis and continued monitoring.
Egypt’s Ministry of Health says the programme grew from the “100 Million Healthy Lives” initiative, which screened more than 60 million people, alongside domestic pharmaceutical production and coordination across state sectors. The reported indicators still await fuller independent detail, including current treatment and mortality totals. But the renewed status makes one point clear: Egypt is being judged not only on how sharply it reduced hepatitis C, but on whether it can keep that reduction in place.
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