Hepatitis C & Liver Cancer Prevention

At a joint event in Cairo, IARC recognized Egypt’s exceptional progress in eliminating Hepatitis C, becoming the first country to achieve WHO’s “gold tier” status. This represents a major milestone in liver cancer prevention, particularly hepatocellular carcinoma. The event emphasized the importance of integrated health systems, widespread screening programs, and the use of scientific evidence as the foundation for effective cancer prevention policies.

Hepatitis virus

Hepatitis C virus is one of the five main strains of hepatitis virus, referred to as types A, B, C, D, and E. Three of these strains – types B, C, and, most recently, D – have been classified as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1) by the IARC Monographs programme. Chronic infection with viral hepatitis causes 1.3 million deaths every year even though most cases of hepatitis are preventable, treatable, and, in the case of hepatitis C, curable.

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