First: Health Care
Egypt is known for its long remarkable history in the field of medicine and medication. Ancient writings and paintings on walls of temples and tombs show that medicinal plants had been in use for medication since 3000 years BC. Egyptians also excelled in anatomy, physiology and mummification.

When the Abbasid ruler of Egypt Ahmad Ibn Touloon took over, he established the first hospital (Bimarstan) in Egypt, southern al-Qatay city. High care, Physicians, pharmacists and servants of different religions and races were provided for patients. Ibn Toloun also ordered that only members of the public would be treated in this hospital, and that soldiers or Mamlukes would be barred.
Under the reign of Salah Eddin al-Ayyoubi, many medical care houses were established, such as “Bimarstan” in Alexandria and “The Ancient Bimarstan” in Cairo (577 AH- 1181 AD)

As part of the revival movement triggered by Mohammed Ali in 1805, a school of medicine was established at Abo-Za'bal in 1827 and later moved to the first school of Qasr Al-Aini in Cairo. The school then had 300 students and the appended hospital accommodated 1,000 patients. The first school of midwives was set up at Qasr Al Aini hospital in 1838.

Appended to the school of medicine, a school of pharmacy was set up in 1829 and a school of veterinary medicine at Rasheed in 1827, which was later relocated beside the school of Abo-Za'bal in 1831.

Egypt has a strong health infrastructure, involving hospitals, medical centers, institutions and highly specialized medical staff that support preventive and therapeutic medical services in Egypt and all Arab countries. Health care services cover all parts of Egypt.

 

Investments implemented in the programme of health services during (2002-2004) showed about LE 5 billion, including LE 3.3 billion accounting for 66% by the government sector and the rest by the private sector.

Investments implemented in 2004/05 hit LE 2.4 billion, including LE 1.7 billion implemented by the government and economic agencies, accounting for 70.8% of total investments allocated for this programme.

 

-  Number of public and central hospitals mounted to 326.

- Number of rural hospitals mounted to 757.

- Number of health and rural units reached 4,26.

- Number of beds at the Ministry of Health hospitals mounted to 157,000

- Number of pharmacists hit 138,000

- Number of physicians mounted to 155,000 while number of male and female nurses hit 187,000.

 

Health insurance in Egypt was provided since 1964 for 140,000 citizens as the optimal way for providing satisfactory medicinal care. Recently, a number of serious and effective steps were taken to extend the insurance coverage to include new categories whether emergency cases or the non-insured. The total number of the insured during 2004/05 reached 36.5 million beneficiaries, receiving medical treatment in 7000 various clinics, 41 hospitals that include 2700 beds, 26 renal dialysis centers and 177 family planning units. During 2004, about LE 1.6 billion were spent on health insurance services.

 

Within the framework of the state's keenness on paying due attention to the low-income brackets through providing state-financed treatment, many achievements have been witnessed during 2004/05, salient of which are as follows:

- Number of state-financed medical treatment decrees rose to 1,323,043 during 2004, against 751,949 during 2001.

- State-financed medical treatment expenses mounted to LE 1,017,905,052 during 2004 against 1,630,645,056 during 2001.

- State-financed medicine expenses rose to about LE 650 million during 2004.

 

Pharmaceuticals are considered an indispensable strategic commodity, given its vital importance for citizens' health.

The first recent production of pharmaceuticals in Egypt took place in 1940 by establishing a company for medical formulations, affiliated to Misr Bank. Later, pharmaceutical industry witnessed tangible leaps. In 1962, the Egyptian General Institution for Pharmaceuticals was established to shoulder the responsibility of providing pharmaceuticals whether through production or importation.

There/upon, the state embarked on activating pharmaceutical policies that aim at providing medicine for all citizens. As a result, the percentage of self-sufficiency of pharmaceuticals during 2004/05 reached 96 percent of patients' needs. Furthermore, Egyptian pharmaceuticals are now exported to 100 Arab, African and European countries.

No integrated health services could be provided without the concomitant provision of blood with all its derivatives and in all quantities, groups and in accordance with international quality and standards. Thus, the state pays due attention to upgrade blood banks and equip them with the state-of-the-art technology, concomitant with providing qualified labour force capable of keeping abreast of modern technology.

 

The Private Sector represents a cornerstone of providing medical and therapeutic services for citizens including private clinics, investment hospitals, private pharmacies, dispensaries and analyses labs.

 

The population sector's projects remarkably contributed to achieving balanced population growth. Egypt adopted a comprehensive approach to woman and family planning issues. Reproductive health and woman's health approaches were adopted right from childhood, through pre-marriage to post-marriage periods. The population and family planning strategies are based on the following:

- Continuing to provide the latest contraceptives.

- Continuing to reinforce the mobile clinics system within squat and deprived areas.

- Continuing to promote public awareness and provide medical teams in rural units.

 

1- reducing population growth rate;

2- achieving the best geographical population distribution;

3- promoting demographic properties; and

4-decreasing demographic, social and economic discrepancies between different population groups and geographic areas.

The overall aim of controlling population growth is to reduce annual increase rate to 0.1 percent.

Population inside Egypt reached 71.8 million as of January 1,2005 with an increase of 1,6 fold.

Normal population growth in 2004 mounted to 1,348,829 with a monthly increase of 112, 402 and a daily increase of 3,685; i.e. one birth every 23.4 seconds.

Normal growth rate fell from 1.96% in 2003 to 1.94% in 2004. The fall roots back to a decline in birth rate from about 26.12 per thousand in 2003 to 25.8 per thousand at the end of 2004. Besides, mortality rate rose from 6.48 per thousand in 2003 to 6.37 per thousand at the end of 2004. Normal growth rate fell from 19.6 per thousand in 2003 to 19.9 per thousand by the end of 2004. Life expectancy of males at birth rose from 67.9 years in 2003 to 68.4 years in 2004. Life expectancy of females rose from 72.3 years in 2003 to 72.8 years in 2004

Year	Male	Female
2003 2004	67.90 68.4	72.30 72.8

         

The 2005/06 plan aims to reduce birth to 2.4.8 per thousand and mortality rate to 6.3 per thousand, thus bringing the normal growth rate to 18.5 per thousand in 2005/06.

Family medicine is the underpinning of the unified comprehensive health insurance system. It mainly aims at providing, developing and renewing health services. This could be realized through studying the society's health problems so as to find the appropriate solutions for about 80-90% of the cases.

This system has been applied in 19 governorates through a number of health units, providing a physician for every 500 families, living in one neighbourhood. In so doing, each family gets about 70% of health services in the nearest health unit. These services include children vaccinations, first-aid health services, pharmaceuticals, motherhood and childhood care, family planning and laboratory analyses. In light of this medical system, each family has a medical register that contains the family's medical and genetic history, as a preliminary step towards extending the medical insurance coverage to reach each and every citizen in Egypt during five years.

 

Curbing the problem of overpopulation is considered one of the State's major priorities nowadays through increasing the number of the targeted, using contraceptives. During 2004, family planning services coverage reached about 70.5%. Contraceptive usage rate increased from 56.5% in 2002 to 60% in 2004. 

 

-         Number of health units reached 4493.

-         Number of mobile health units reached 590.

-         Number of women clubs rose to 1020.

-         Number of family planning information centers in directorates and departments rose to 280.

-         Number of rural outreach health workers hit 13,000.