1. Home
  2. Middle East and North Africa
  3. Egypt

Free drugs for HIV-positive people

People living with HIV/AIDS in Egypt will begin receiving free antiretroviral drugs as part of a new governmental initiative, Agence France-Press has reported. The announcement made by Health Minister Mohammed Awad Tag Eddin coincided with the recent start of a national AIDS awareness campaign, launched despite the relatively small number of HIV-positive people in the country. Eddin said two out of every one million people tested HIV-positive each year, and there were no more than 650 HIV-positive people in Egypt. The Ministry of Health and Population, although denying the existence of the disease in the country during the mid-1990s, established the country's first HIV/AIDS centre and a telephone hotline.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

Share this article

Our ability to deliver compelling, field-based reporting on humanitarian crises rests on a few key principles: deep expertise, an unwavering commitment to amplifying affected voices, and a belief in the power of independent journalism to drive real change.

We need your help to sustain and expand our work. Your donation will support our unique approach to journalism, helping fund everything from field-based investigations to the innovative storytelling that ensures marginalised voices are heard.

Please consider joining our membership programme. Together, we can continue to make a meaningful impact on how the world responds to crises.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian

Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

Join