Egyptian Women’s Health Status…Initiatives and Achievements
In 2016, Egypt launched its national plan to achieve sustainable development, “Egypt Vision 2030”, which sets priorities for National Action and a roadmap towards a better future.
The Egyptian vision emphasizes the importance of improving the standard of living for all social groups by providing appropriate education and providing an adequate health system
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The health of Egyptian women( representing half of society and affecting it as a whole ) is of great importance in Egypt’s Vision 2030.
During a celebration honoring Egyptian women in 2019, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi called for launching an initiative to preserve women’s health, which included conducting a comprehensive medical screening campaign to detect breast cancer, raising the slogan “The Egyptian woman is the health of Egypt.”
In this context, the Strategic Forum for Public Policy and Development Studies “Draya” issues a research paper that sheds light on the details of the presidential initiative to support Egyptian women’s health and the achievements achieved in this regard, as well as the efforts of the Egyptian state to support women’s health
The most important findings and recommendations that can be used to support and develop the current state efforts in the field of improving the health status of Egyptian women :
– Launching a national media campaign in which traditional media and social media contribute to the importance of women’s health and its impact on her family and how to benefit from presidential campaigns, especially those concerned with the detection of cancerous tumors, communicable and chronic diseases and related to maternal and Child Health.
– Establishing a strong national database on the common maternal diseases among women and the extent of their prevalence in different governorates of Egypt and the age groups most susceptible to these diseases.
– Intensifying home visits for women, especially in rural and remote areas, and raising their awareness to detect the incidence of some diseases, especially breast cancer through self-examination.
-Dedicating the celebration in the month of October under the slogan “Pink October” to raise awareness among women about ways to combat cancer, especially breast cancer, and to spread more culture of prevention methods and raise awareness of the importance of early detection and methods of psychological rehabilitation for those infected during the treatment period.
– Increasing the number of mobile women’s health units, especially in remote areas and villages of Upper Egypt and its countryside.
– Follow-up of women who have a genetic history of cancer in the family and make sure to conduct periodic examinations for them.
– Intensifying awareness campaigns and organizing more seminars for women in order to spread awareness about cancer, especially in border governorates and remote areas.
– Expanding the establishment and equipping of health units that provide mammogram and sonar services in all governorates of the Republic, all villages, hamlets, border and remote areas.
– Activating and increasing the sending of text messages to remind women of the dates of their periodic visit to health units and survey their opinions.
– Developing an integrated program of psychological support, nutrition, education and physiotherapy services for patients with cancerous tumors with the rehabilitation of their families during the various stages of treatment and even after the completion of the recovery process.
The first axis: the presidential initiative to support the health of Egyptian women
In 2019, Egypt launched the initiative of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for the early detection of breast tumors in all governorates of the Republic for free. it targets treatment and full awareness of the causes of the disease and the mechanisms of self-examination of benefits, as well as the detection of noncommunicable diseases (diabetes, blood pressure, weight and height measurement, body mass index, the level of obesity or overweight), and attention to women’s reproductive health, which includes screening and providing awareness to women from the age of 18 for free, the total cost of the initiative is 278 million pounds.
* The first phase of the initiative includes governorates (Alexandria-Port Said– Beheira – Fayoum – Assiut – Qalyubia – Matrouh – South Sinai-Damietta).
* The second phase includes governorates (North Sinai-Red Sea-Cairo – Ismailia – Suez – Kafr el Sheikh – Menoufia – Beni Suef – Sohag – Luxor-Aswan).
* The third stage includes the governorates (New Valley – Giza – west – Dakahlia – East – Minya – Qana)
Implemented within the framework of the initiative:
– Preparing a list of targeted women in the neighborhood and governorate and following the system of systematic periodic screening according to the history of the disease in the family, age and genetic factors, and developing the necessary plan to implement the campaign.screening services were also provided to women on the initiative through 3,538 health units at the level of the governorates of the Republic, as well as 114 hospitals to provide medical service to women whose condition requires an Advanced examination.
– Providing knowledge of the places of examination through the official website of the initiative http://www.100millionseha.eg.
– Receiving inquiries about the initiative through the hotline of the 100 million health initiative 15335, 24 hours a day in Arabic and English, where 117 thousand and 486 calls were received.
– Sending about one million and 500 thousand text messages on women’s mobile phones to urge them to continue monitoring their health status within the initiative periodically.
– Developing direct means of communication between the citizen and the ministry, such as Facebook pages, the automatic response feature on the “WhatsApp” application, the ministry’s website and the Egypt health application.
– Providing the latest international treatment protocols for breast cancer treatment free of charge within the initiative, within the vision of the political leadership to pay attention to the public health of Egyptian citizens and women.
– Developing the infrastructure in health units and hospitals to work within the initiative, by increasing the number of devices used in diagnostics, which include sonar and mammogram devices, and pathology laboratories.
– Training of all medical teams working within the initiative, which amounted to 20 thousand and 89 medical teams, including each of them (doctors, nurses, radiology technicians), as well as training data entry and administrators, to ensure the provision of the best level of medical service
Achievements :
The initiative succeeded in achieving unprecedented achievements in the detection and treatment of women free of charge and at the expense of the state, and these achievements included the following:
– On June 17, 2023, the Ministry of Health and population announced the reception of 36 million and 464 thousand visits from women to receive examination and awareness services, within the framework of the president’s sustainable initiative to support Egyptian women’s health, since its launch in July 2019 .
– Visits are divided into 19 million, 658 thousand, 448 visits for the first time, 9 million, 247 and 592 periodic visits, 7 million, 557 thousand and 967 casual visits .
-548 thousand and 126 women visited hospitals to conduct Advanced examinations within the initiative.
– The initiative provides its free services for the examination of women through 3538 health units at the level of the governorates of the Republic, in addition to the participation of 102 hospitals, to provide medical service to women whose condition requires an Advanced examination, and inquiries can be received through the hotline of the initiative “100 million health” on the number 15335.
– 29,331 cases were presented and discussed through the multidisciplinary MDT committee in the field of oncology, within the initiative, in order to make a unified treatment decision, as the initiative follows the latest international protocols for the treatment of breast cancer, through 14 centers affiliated to the Ministry of Health and population, in addition to activating these protocols in 14 centers affiliated to the Supreme Council of University Hospitals and free of charge, and these centers are being equipped for Applied Research in order to reach advanced research centers in the treatment of oncology, within the vision of the political leadership to pay attention to the public health of citizens.
-19,674 cases of breast cancer have been detected, and 298,854 mammograms have been performed since the launch of the initiative, in addition to withdrawing 29,764 tumor samples for analysis, and providing free treatment for cases that have been confirmed .
– Follow-up treatment of injured women, whether subject to health insurance, or the treatment system at the expense of the state. As part of the keenness to raise the efficiency of service providers, 24,208 training programs were provided to medical teams, including (doctors, nurses and radiology technicians), in addition to providing training programs for data entry and administrators and returning those training programs to ensure the provision of the best level of medical service.
– The centers providing mammogram and sonar services have been expanded to 71 centers, compared to 13 centers in 2019, as well as 60 laboratories in microspecialties, in addition to the pathology laboratory of the Dar es Salaam Oncology Center (Hermel), which was accredited by the American College of pathologists.
– According to the statements of the minister of Health / Dr. Khalid Abdul Ghaffar, the initiative is based on a set of basic pillars, the most important of which are: (early detection, data management, training for medical teams, and modern scientific research), explaining that early detection and diagnosis work is carried out through 70 highly equipped laboratories and 71 radiology centers, stressing the importance of advertising campaigns and awareness and health education activities, through communication with women in their places of residence and work, pointing out that more than 36 million visits have been made, and providing health awareness to more than 20 million women from the age of 18. He also explained that the initiative has succeeded in achieving its goal of early detection of tumors according to innovative and effective treatment lines in line with global updates, announcing the arrival of high rates of detection of the disease in the first and second stages.
– The percentage of conservative surgeries increased to 34.25% by the end of 2022, compared to 31.5% by the end of 2021, and the percentage of conservative resection surgeries increased to 60%, pointing to the activation of protocols for surgical treatment of breast tumors, and the activation of a unified protocol for chemotherapy in accordance with international guidelines in this regard.
– The initiative’s services in 2022 included sending 9 million text messages to remind ladies of the dates of their periodic visits and polling their opinions.
The second axis: the efforts of the Egyptian state to support women’s health ..
Egypt has made enormous and unprecedented efforts to preserve and support women’s health and provide all health services to them:
1-the Presidential Initiative “Egyptian women are the health of Egypt”, which targeted (210,920), and included the themes of the campaign: early detection of tumors” breast cancer”, noncommunicable diseases (diabetes, pressure, obesity), heart disease and osteoporosis
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2-the state launched the presidential initiative to support Egyptian women’s Health, which has successfully examined 33.8 million women so far and 1.8 million through the maternal and fetal health care initiative so far, as well as 2 million women beneficiaries of the comprehensive health insurance system since its launch, by 49.3%
3-Bahia initiative: the National Council for women has adopted the launch of the ” Bahia initiative” to urge women to collect material donations for the treatment of breast cancer patients and early detection campaigns for free, and the council also conducts field visits to the hospital moral support for female patients:
– The number of beneficiaries of the Bahia initiative and the donation campaign led by the council reached {134,000} benefiting from early detection, free treatment and pre-treatment examinations.
– Equipping a room in the name of the National Council for women at the hospital.
– Conducting (5) field visits to Bahia hospital, and honoring (120) female veterans recovering from the disease in a ceremony held by the hospital.
– Launching the “ladies of Egypt ” initiative to alleviate the waiting lists and participate in providing material and in-kind support to the hospital, and the “Protect Your Family protect Egypt… Bahiya in your back ” initiative to facilitate the access of hormone therapy for patients with the outbreak of the corona epidemic.
– Participation in the foundation stone laying ceremony at Bahia Hospital, Sheikh Zayed branch.
– To stimulate the efforts of government, civil society and civil society to raise awareness of the importance of “early detection of breast cancer for Egyptian women ” and also the council coordinated between different entities to integrate individual roles.
– The council launched the “journey of hope with breast cancer” program, within the framework of the “100 million health” initiative, which is a free campaign to raise awareness and early screening for breast cancer, using the mammography device “mammogram”, to educate women about the method of self-detection.
5-launching the presidential initiative to support maternal and fetal health, in March 2020, at a cost of 55.5 million pounds, 1.48 million women out of 1.5 million targeted women have been examined
