Screening and Treatment Program to Eliminate Hepatitis C in Egypt

Waked, Imam; Esmat, Gamal; Elsharkawy, Aisha; El‐Serafy, Magdy; Abdel-Razek, Waël; Ghalab, R; Elshishiney, Galal; Salah, Aysam; Megid, Soad Abdel; Kabil, Khaled; El-Sayed, Manal Hamdy; Dabbous, Hany; Shazly, Yehia El; Sliman, Mohamed Abo; Hashem, Khalid Abou; Gawad, Sayed A. Abdel; Nahas, Nevine El; Sobky, Ahmed El; Sonbaty, Sahar El; Tabakh, Hamdy El; Emad, E.F. Fathi; Gemeah, Hany; Hashem, Amal Al; Hassany, Mohamed; Hefnawy, Naseif; Hemida, Abdel N; Khadary, Ayman; Labib, Kamal B.; Mahmoud, Faisal; Mamoun, Said; Marei, Tamer; Mekky, Saad; Meshref, Alsayeda; Othman, Alaa; Ragab, Omnia; Ramadan, Elhag; Rehan, Ahmed; Saad, Tarek; Saeed, Ramy; Sharshar, Mohamed; Shawky, Hazem; Shawky, Mohamed; Shehata, Wael; Soror, Hanaa; Taha, Mohsen; Talha, Mahmoud; Tealaab, Adel; Zein, Mohamed; Hashish, Alaa; Cordie, Ahmed; Omar, Yasser; Kamal, Ehab; Ammar, Islam Abdel-Mawla; Abdalla, Mohamed; El-Akel, Wafaa; Doss, Wahid; Zaid, Hala

doi:10.1056/nejmsr1912628

Cited by 178 publications

(191 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…The avian influenza case of Indonesia, where the country supplied the samples but didn't have free access to the developed vaccine, clearly demonstrated this problem, and showed the imbalance between developed and developing countries in this aspect [30]. Interestingly, the Egyptian government had a very successful model for drug delivery during 100 Million Healthy Lives program to eliminate hepatitis C in Egypt [31]. First, Egyptian companies got permission to formulate several generic direct-acting antivirals against hepatitis C at a very affordable price through an exemption under the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights [32].…”

Section: Attitudes Towards the Preventive Measures Of Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, Egyptian companies got permission to formulate several generic direct-acting antivirals against hepatitis C at a very affordable price through an exemption under the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights [32]. Second, the successful treatment program was under the umbrella of the government, which controlled the process of treatment and distribution of the drugs [31]. Finally, the program also included screening for diabetes, hypertension, as well as obesity.…”

Section: Attitudes Towards the Preventive Measures Of Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, the program also included screening for diabetes, hypertension, as well as obesity. So, the Egyptian government now has a database of vulnerable groups among about 50 million adult Egyptian [31,32]. This database can be very useful if a new vaccine or treatment is approved for COVID-19.…”

Section: Attitudes Towards the Preventive Measures Of Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Knowledge, Perceptions, and Attitude of Egyptians Towards the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)

et al. 2020

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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been recognized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Global efforts have been exerted to prevent the spreading of the disease through political decisions together with personal behaviors, which depend on awareness of the public. The goal of this study is to assess the knowledge, perceptions and attitude of the Egyptian public towards the COVID-19 disease. We conducted a cross-sectional survey about these points, which was distributed among adult Egyptians. Five hundred and fifty nine persons completed the survey. The mean knowledge score was 16.39 out of 23, gained mainly though social media (66.9%), and the internet (58.3%). Knowledge was significantly lower among older, less educated, lower income participants, and rural residents. Most participants (86.9%) were concerned about the risk of infection. While 37.6% thought that their salary will be continued if they become isolated, 68.5% believed that it should be continued during this period. About 73.0% were looking forward to get the vaccine when available. In general, participants had a good knowledge about the disease and a positive attitude towards protective measures. This knowledge is gained mainly through novel media channels, which have pros and cons. Although the government has taken major steps to educate the public and limit the spread of the disease, more effort is needed to educate and support the lower economic strata. If a vaccine or a treatment is approved, we recommend a government control over its use to preserve the rights of the vulnerable and needy groups.

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Section: Attitudes Towards the Preventive Measures Of Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Attitudes Towards the Preventive Measures Of Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Knowledge, Perceptions, and Attitude of Egyptians Towards the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)

et al. 2020

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“…Point-of-care tests (POCs; also known as rapid diagnostic tests, RDTs) are simplified versions of laboratory-based tests that have the potential to circumvent major barriers people face to accessing hepatitis B blood-based testing in various settings. POCs usually require small amounts of body fluids (for example, a finger-prick blood sample or oral swab), short turn-around time, and are generally easy to use with minimal required training and therefore can be provided to people in a variety of community and outreach settings by a broad range of trained workers [ 22 ] and are scalable to rapidly reach large populations as has been seen with the highly successful Egyptian national hepatitis C screening program [ 23 ]. The simple collection process (finger-prick or mouth swab) is also highly acceptable, feasible and attractive to people undergoing testing [ 22 , 24 , 25 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Point-of-Care Tests for Hepatitis B: An Overview

Xiao

Thompson

Howell

2020

Cells

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Despite the heavy disease burden posed by hepatitis B, around 90% of people living with hepatitis B are not diagnosed globally. Many of the affected populations still have limited or no access to essential blood tests for hepatitis B. Compared to conventional blood tests which heavily rely on centralised laboratory facilities, point-of-care testing for hepatitis B has the potential to broaden testing access in low-resource settings and to engage hard-to-reach populations. Few hepatitis B point-of-care tests have been ratified for clinical use by international and regional regulatory bodies, and countries have been slow to adopt point-of-care testing into hepatitis B programs. This review presents currently available point-of-care tests for hepatitis B and their roles in the care cascade, reviewing evidence for testing performance, utility, acceptability, costs and cost-effectiveness when integrated into hepatitis B diagnosis and monitoring programs. We further discuss challenges and future directions in aspects of technology, implementation, and regulation when adopting point-of-care testing in hepatitis B programs.

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“…In Egypt, the mean HCV prevalence was estimated at 11.9% among the general population 3 . The recently published national study in 2020 showed that HCV seroprevalence among 48,345,948 Egyptian patients was 4.61% 4 . HCV genotype 4 accounts for more than 8% of all patients with HCV infection globally and more predominantly found in patients from Egypt (94.1% of all HCV infections) 3,5,6 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%