Argentine professional footballer Lionel Messi is expected to arrive in Egypt on Wednesday to promote Hepatitis C treatment tourism in the North African country.
The football star’s visit was scheduled for December 2016, but was postponed after the deadly bombing of St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church, which took place on 11 December according to the Daily News report.
Messi is visiting Egypt in efforts to fight Hepatitis C pushing for Egypt as the treatment destination for patients worldwide.
The footballer is part of the attempts by the Egyptian ministries of tourism and aviation to refresh tourism in Egypt with a campaign that aims to promote Egypt as a destination for patients from Europe and Asia to seek cure for Hepatatis C at a cheap price.
The campaign targets 120,000 tourists from the UK, Spain, Italy, France, Russia, Malaysia, and Turkey to receive treatment of Hepatitis C in Egypt according to Tamer Wagih, chairperson to the Prime Pharma Company which organized the campaign of Tour and Cure.
Hepatitis C treatment in Europe costs around 105,621USD but Egypt’s campaign is seeking ensure the costs will not exceed 5,175USD in Egypt.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Egypt was declared one of the best countries in treating patients with the Hepatitis C virus. It was also stated that the price of a three-month treatment has dropped from $900 to $200 in 2014.
