The Argentine Barcelona player Lionel Messi praised the success of Egypt’s program to treat the hepatitis C virus.
“Having cured more than one million patients, Egypt is leading the world in the fight against hepatitis C,” Messi said in a Spanish and English post on his Facebook page, which is followed by 90 million people around the world.
“Finally there is an effective and affordable cure, what are you waiting for to join us to eradicate the disease?” Messi said.
https://www.facebook.com/leomessi/videos/2146681425351440/
He concluded his post with the hashtags #TourNCure and #StopTheWait in reference to the Egyptian medical tourism program “Tour n Cure”, which aims to treat patients from all over the world from hepatitis C in Egypt. The Barcelona star is one of most famous ambassadors to cure the disease around the world.
Messi attached the “Tour n Cure” medical tourism program, inviting people infected with hepatitis C from all over the world to come to Egypt to receive treatment and avoid waiting lists.
The medical journals and international conferences praised the Egyptian experiment, which has now moved to the second phase, launching nationwide surveys to detect and treat the unrecognized cases of this disease with the aim of completely eradicating it by 2020 according to the initiative of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
The Egyptian Health Minister Ahmed Emad on Saturday announced the launch of the second phase of the expanded national campaign to eliminate hepatitis C by 2020, which will begin in 10 governorates, as part of the initiative of President Sisi, to declare Egypt free of hepatitis C, in cooperation with the Tahya Misr fund and al-Azhar.
The campaign was launched on February 13, in 17 governorates. The spokesperson for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed said that the campaign aims to survey and treat 15 million people every year over a period of three years, so that Egypt will be free of the virus by the end of 2020.
He added that the campaign targets the age group between 19 to 59, the most vulnerable group, and to achieve the goal, the national campaign had to expand in this way.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
