Threats to Egypt's plan to eliminate hepatitis C virus infection: injection drug users and sex workers are unaddressed reservoir that cannot be ignored; a short communication

ABSTRACT

Background: Hepatitis C virus [HCV] is a huge health problem in Egypt with 15% prevalence, 165,000 annual new cases, and 40,000 annual deaths. Egypt has developed a five years plan to eliminate HCV, however this plan does not fully address the problem of HCV among vulnerable groups such as injection drug users and sex workers. This article is to shed the light on this unaddressed reservoir that threatens the fully elimination of HCV in Egypt. It also provides an overview about proposed strategies to tackle HCV problem among that sensitive population