Egypt and Sudan discussed on Saturday cooperation and coordination to treat 250,000 Sudanese citizens for Hepatitis C under an Egyptian presidential initiative to eliminate the disease among 1 million Africans.

Egyptian health ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said that Health Minister Hala Zayed held a virtual meeting with her Sudanese counterpart Sara Abdel-Azeem as part of efforts to promote cooperation in the health sector in accordance with directives from President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

The minister stressed Egypt’s readiness to send 200,000 drug doses to treat Hepatitis C patients in Sudan along with PCR testing for the disease, as well as training for health staff on diagnosis protocols.

Egypt announced in July that it had succeeded in becoming the first country to be free of Hepatitis C. 

Around 60 million Egyptians were tested for Hepatitis C in only seven months as part of the ‘100 Million Health initiative,’ which was carried out from October 2018 until April 2019 to screen and treat hepatitis and non-communicable diseases.

The initiative included mass screenings for citizens over the age of 18 for the early detection of Hepatitis C infection, alongside evaluation and treatment at health units deployed nationwide.

Zayed has invited her Sudanese counterpart to a meeting in Cairo in the coming days to put in place an executive plan to implement a joint project aimed at combating the malaria-bearing Gambia mosquito.

Zayed also asked the Sudanese side to send medical reports on those injured in the country’s revolution so Egyptian hospitals can start receiving them for free medical treatment.