The history of tuberculosis control in Egypt in a national conference that presents the current situation

The National Tuberculosis Control Program, at the Ministry of Health and Population, celebrated World Disease Day, in the presence of Dr. Mohamed Awad Taj El-Din, Advisor to the President of the Republic for Health and Prevention Affairs, and all experts and specialists in this field in Egypt, led by the Cairo Chest Disease and Tuberculosis Control Association, and those International organizations: World Health, Migration, the United Nations Development Program, and the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Dr. presented. Wajdi Amin, Director of the Chest Department at the Ministry of Health, Director of the National Program to Combat Tuberculosis, said that the disease was called in ancient times consumption, then tuberculosis, then the white plague, and evidence of it has been found since BC, where it was found in their mummies, and more recently in the last 250 years it has been diagnosed in several Forms and names, and the idea of the first tuberculosis treatment clinic in Egypt came about in 1901, through Baron Johann Klopp, who established a hotel he called Al-Hayat in Helwan, and donated it to the state as a tuberculosis hospital.

< p>The first two dispensaries for tuberculosis treatment were established in Al-Sabtiya in Cairo and the second in Mansoura in 1929.

In 1936, the Egyptian Ministry of Health was established, by decree from King Ahmed Fouad I, and the beginning In establishing Al-Abbasiya Sadr Hospital at that time and it opened in 1938.

Amin continued: In 1952, there were 25 dispensaries and 22 Sadr hospitals in Egypt, and in 1970 it reached 88 dispensaries and 40. Sadr Hospital in Egypt, and home treatment for tuberculosis patients began in 1953. In 1962, Al-Muhandis Al-Nabawi Al-Muhandis took over the portfolio of the Ministry of Health, and most of the Egyptian Sadr hospitals were established during his reign. He then established centers for the rehabilitation of tuberculosis patients in the governorates, as it caused the patient’s disability in many cases.

The National Committee to Combat Tuberculosis was formed in 1997 during the era of Dr. Ismail Salam, the former Minister of Health, opened the National Center for Training and Research on Tuberculosis in 2001, and Egypt began experimenting with drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment with 75 patients in 2004, and has now reached a success rate of 70%.

< p>In 2008, the second department for drug-resistant tuberculosis was opened at Sadr Al-Maamoura Hospital, and then the diagnostic and therapeutic methods were expanded during the era of Dr. Adel Adawi, former Minister of Health, and it started with 9 devices and has now reached 49 devices.

Egypt participated in the level-level presidential meeting at the United Nations on combating tuberculosis, and the World Health Organization praised its efforts. Egypt has made efforts to combat tuberculosis, and Egypt has also participated in confronting the Corona pandemic through chest hospitals, and the development of chest hospitals is being completed, and 8 popular endoscopy units have been modernized.

And in 2023, it was completed. Preparing an epidemiological map for tuberculosis, to be used when updating the Egyptian health map 2030.