Egypt screened 60 million people for hepatitis C, WHO says, and treated 4.1 million

Egypt has screened more than 60 million people for hepatitis C and treated 4.1 million of them. That is according to Dr Adham Ismail, who is running the World Health Organization's Eastern Mediterranean regional office. The result: prevalence of the disease fell from 10% to 0.38%.

He was speaking, via video link, at the first Africa Health Data Forum in Nairobi, hosted by Kenya.

What did the WHO say about Egypt?

Egypt is one of seven countries in the WHO's Eastern Mediterranean region that lie in Africa. The others are Djibouti, Libya, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan and Tunisia. Together they have about 250 million people, roughly a third of the region's population.

Ismail said the evidence from these seven countries is encouraging. Besides the hepatitis C numbers, he recalled that the WHO certified Egypt malaria-free in 2024. Morocco has extended compulsory health insurance to more than 32 million people. Tunisia plans to give every citizen a unique national health ID by the end of 2026. And Somalia has completed its first national health and demographic survey.

Why does data matter so much?

Ismail's point was that mosquitoes and outbreaks don't respect borders, so data shouldn't either. In 2012, Djibouti found a mosquito species never before recorded in Africa and reported 27 malaria cases. By 2020 it had logged more than 73,000.

In Sudan, after more than three years of conflict, 37% of health facilities are out of service. The WHO has verified 217 attacks on health care. Even so, an early-warning system detected and responded to more than 64,000 dengue cases and 650,000 malaria cases. Cholera reached all 18 states by March 2026, with over 113,000 cases, before it was contained.

Gaps remain. In Somalia, only about one in ten births is officially registered. Across the region, just 54% of deaths were registered in 2018.

What's next?

Ismail set out three priorities. First, count every birth and death, especially in fragile settings. Second, turn data into decisions by linking systems within and across countries. Third, align investment with national priorities and move from parallel reporting and short pilot projects to shared standards.

If you remember Egypt's 2018 "100 Million Healthy Lives" campaign, which aimed to screen about 50 million people, these figures show how far it went. Ismail closed by calling for concrete, country-led commitments so that no threat is missed and no one is left out of the data.