This Is So Important - Egyptians Design 'Faster, Cheaper' Hepatitis C Test

This is so important because over 2 million American citizens have Hepatitis C and do not know it. Given HCV's 20 to 30 year potential incubation period, the results of this lack of awareness are nothing less than deadly. When people experience such advanced symptoms of the effects of the virus on their livers because they have not been aware of their HCV infection, it already can be too late. And it is not easy to get a liver transplant in this country. Who possibly wants to experience such extreme health risks when it is not necessary? 

The problem is that the current Hepatitis C blood test is so expensive that insurance companies deny it more often than not. I was in the hospital for two and a half months after a car crash in 2002, I was on heroin and thus the highest risk group as a potential needle user, and I was not tested. Enough is enough! Luckily, researchers at the American University in Cairo may have swayed the tide. 

It was announced on Wednesday that a team of its researchers have designed a faster and cheaper test for all types of hepatitis C. In Egypt, over 10 million Egyptians are infected with the virus and  close to a majority do not know they are infected. The new cutting edge development "reduces the two-step testing process carried out over a number of days to a one-step process that takes less than an hour... at a fraction of the cost of traditional diagnostic protocols," the university said.

The New Blood Test Is Inexpensive And Fast - One Day, Not Two

The liquid chemistry test now diagnoses hepatitis C using gold nanoparticles. "Our test is sensitive and inexpensive, and it does not need sophisticated equipment. Detecting HCV during the first six months raises the recovery rate to 90 percent. Little is done on the national level to combat the alarming prevalence of hepatitis C in Egypt" said Hassan Azzazy, professor of chemistry and head of the research team.

The AUC said Egypt has about 10 million people who suffer from the hepatitis C virus (HCV), with the blood-borne pathogen infecting almost 500,000 every year in Egypt. It is a staggeringly high rate of infection. Worldwide, around 170 million people are estimated to be living with the chronic disease caused by the virus. Unlike hepatitis A or B, most people infected with HCV cannot battle the virus with their own immune system. Once it starts affecting the liver and as it evolves, HCV morphs into stronger variants.

The World Health Organisation estimates that across the entire world, three to four million people are newly infected with HCV each year. The WHO says Egypt has one of the highest rates of hepatitis C prevalence in the world, putting the rate of infection in the country at 22 percent. Contamination can occur through blood transfusions, blood products and organ transplants, and the virus can also be passed on to a child if the mother is infected.

It clearly is not all about needles and sex and stigmatization. Rather, it is about poor testing and the inefficiency of third world hospitals. Let's not forget that if the blood supply is not tested effectively, the highest percentage of blood donors will always be drug addicts needing money for a fix. America started testing in 1992, Europe slowly caught up, but the Third World is far behind with no clear answers on the horizon. That is why a cheap blood test to reveal the infection is an absolute necessity, and I personally congratulate and thank the American University research team.