For seven years, Sulemana Musah put nearly each bit of cash that got here his manner into his warfare with hepatitis C.

His pupil loans for graduate college, his wage from his job as a highschool trainer and the money he earned from a facet gig promoting yams all went to assessments and medicines to attempt to treatment the virus that debilitated him. Mr. Musah, 27, who lives in Accra, the capital of Ghana, put aside desires of beginning a enterprise, constructing a home, getting married.

He scraped collectively sufficient money — $900, half his annual wage — to purchase a course of the medicine that, a decade in the past, started to revolutionize hepatitis C remedy in the US and different high-income nations.

He was the uncommon affected person for whom that remedy wasn’t sufficient, so for years he tried, unsuccessfully, to avoid wasting sufficient for one more. “I used to be left simply ready for God to do his wonders,” he mentioned.

Then in March, his physician gave him extraordinary information: The Ghanaian authorities had acquired a donation of medicines for hepatitis C. He may have remedy without spending a dime. Inside weeks, Mr. Musah had the capsules. In October, a blood take a look at confirmed he was cured eventually.

He was broke, exhausted — and able to mud off his ambitions.

The donation got here from a impossible supply: Egypt, which only some years in the past had the world’s highest burden of hepatitis C. An estimated one in 10 folks, about 9 million Egyptians, had been chronically contaminated. In a public well being marketing campaign extraordinary for each its scale and its success, Egypt screened its total inhabitants, brokered a deal for massively discounted medicine and cured nearly everybody with the virus.

“This is without doubt one of the biggest accomplishments ever in public well being,” mentioned Dr. John W. Ward, the director of the Coalition for International Hepatitis Elimination on the Process Power for International Well being.

Egypt is on observe to be the primary nation to attain the World Well being Group objective of eliminating hepatitis C, and it’s leveraging that victory right into a marketing campaign of “well being diplomacy,” pledging to donate medicine and share experience, with the objective of treating 1,000,000 African sufferers. It’s an uncommon gesture on this planet of world well being, the place largess is often delivered to creating nations from high-income nations.

“The Egyptian authorities noticed a chance to increase its experience past its borders and contribute to international well being efforts,” mentioned Khaled Ghaffar, Egypt’s minister of well being and inhabitants. “This well being diplomacy permits Egypt to leverage its success with hepatitis remedy for the higher good thing about humanity whereas concurrently enhancing its standing among the many international group.”

Globally, about 58 million persons are chronically contaminated with hepatitis C, in response to the W.H.O., and the overwhelming majority — 50 million — reside in low- and middle-income nations. 4 in 5 folks don’t know they’ve the illness. About 300,000 folks die every year of problems, significantly cirrhosis and liver most cancers.

The virus is mostly transmitted by blood; in high-income nations, it’s typically unfold by unsanitary needles used for injecting medicine, whereas in creating nations transmission incessantly occurs in well being care settings, both by way of unsterilized needles and devices or in reducing by conventional healers. A few third of individuals clear the an infection on their very own, however in most individuals, it turns into continual, slowly damaging the liver over time.

But few nations embrace the illness of their public well being plans, or perform testing to trace the variety of folks contaminated. Hepatitis C has not been the main target of any massive worldwide applications, the best way H.I.V. and malaria are, and it has been such a low precedence in low-income nations that governments hardly ever even observe how many individuals have it, not to mention deal with it. Till this 12 months, in Ghana as in different African nations, solely a handful of rich folks had been accessing hepatitis C remedy, utilizing medicine they bought privately.

The state of affairs had been the identical in Egypt till 2007. A mass vaccination marketing campaign that started within the Nineteen Fifties and for 20 years used improperly sterilized needles had unintentionally unfold hepatitis by way of the inhabitants. Few folks may afford personal remedy. When the federal government determined to start out its nationwide program, the virus was killing tens of hundreds of individuals yearly. At first, Egypt used two previous medicine that solely cured about half of those that had been handled with them. However in 2013, Gilead Sciences Inc. delivered to market an antiviral drug — the primary treatment for a viral an infection within the historical past of medication.

Whereas the corporate was charging $1,000 for its once-a-day capsule in the US, Egypt negotiated to purchase it for $10 a capsule — after which organized for Indian and Egyptian drug corporations to make a fair cheaper generic model in alternate for a royalty. Egypt has handled greater than 4 million folks, and minimize hepatitis C prevalence to simply 0.4 %.

Different corporations quickly adopted with extra antivirals; they’ve been extremely efficient, protected, and to date not bedeviled by the drug-resistance issues that usually plague antivirals.

“The information on the medicine has solely been good — the issue is that nations aren’t making the medicine accessible to the folks in want,” mentioned Dr. Ward, the coalition director.

Egypt selected Ghana as an early accomplice as a result of it’s investing in build up nationwide well being care. Dr. Yvonne Ayerki Nartey, a doctor at Cape Coast Instructing Hospital, joined the Coalition for International Hepatitis Elimination to place collectively a plan for Ghana’s new response. She wanted first to determine what number of Ghanaians had been contaminated and the place they had been; a nationwide screening effort discovered that one in 20 folks within the north of the nation, an space the place poverty charges are increased and well being companies weaker, had hepatitis C. She went on radio reveals and unfold phrase by way of Fb and WhatsApp that remedy may quickly be accessible.

Medication had been en route from Egypt, however the subsequent step was robust: whereas a liver specialist would deal with hepatitis in the US, Ghana has fewer than 20 hepatologists. Dr. Nartey organized coaching programs for medical doctors in every district.

“Most have by no means handled hepatitis C earlier than as a result of remedy doesn’t occur right here,” she mentioned.

Many of the new remedy websites had been instructing hospitals in regional facilities, however she insisted on a pilot mission at a rural hospital in an remoted area within the north, understanding that if Ghana was to actually wipe out the illness, frontline employees must be those to supply the remedy. The agricultural web site had sufferers screened, examined and enrolled inside every week.

Testing remained an issue: solely personal laboratories provided the viral load assessments which can be needed to trace hepatitis remedy, and so they charged a number of hundred {dollars} per take a look at. Dr. Nartey has 340 sufferers enrolled for potential remedy, however solely 290 of them have been in a position to increase the funds for the viral load take a look at they should begin. The brand new hepatitis program negotiated a decrease price, promising a gradual move of sufferers, however at about $80 per take a look at, it stays the most important problem to this system.

For sufferers who had been dwelling with not solely the monetary price of the illness but in addition anxiousness and worry as they noticed kin die of liver illness, the information of free remedy was nearly unbelievable.

Mr. Musah first started to really feel sick as a highschool pupil dwelling in a small city within the north. The hospital close to his house couldn’t clarify his again ache and feverish nights, and examined for the whole lot from a dairy allergy to syphilis to H.I.V. After tons of of {dollars} in assessments, he was lastly given a hepatitis analysis — however was informed he would wish a specialty hospital to assist him. He traveled to Accra, the place medical doctors mentioned there have been medicine, however he must pay for them.

In March, he joined different hepatitis sufferers at a celebration at a resort within the capital the place the Egyptian ambassador opened the free remedy program. However his challenges weren’t over. He wanted the expensive viral load assessments to substantiate the remedy was working; in September, he was confronted with the selection of utilizing a brand new pupil mortgage he took out to pay the schooling for a grasp’s diploma, or for the take a look at.

In scaling up this system throughout Ghana, Dr. Nartey hopes to display screen two million folks with a less expensive antigen take a look at, which prices a couple of greenback per affected person, after which run the viral load for the 200,000 she anticipates can have the antibodies, confirming lively an infection, and find yourself with 46,000 sufferers who might be handled, utilizing the primary tranche of medication promised by Egypt. Her prevalence survey suggests it will depart one other 300,000 nonetheless to deal with.

“It’s loads, however we’re formidable,” she mentioned.

Egypt is working to arrange parallel hepatitis C applications in different nations together with Chad and Sudan.

On the similar time, Ghana is enhancing blood security and injection practices, drawing on classes from Egypt, and educating conventional healers, decreasing the speed of latest infections, Dr. Ward mentioned.

He hopes that if Ghana manages to scale up its hepatitis program, it is going to spur neighboring nations to start out their very own.

“Now we have to get nations to comprehend the medicine exist and are so efficient,” he mentioned. ”We needs to be on a warpath to eradicate hepatitis C as a result of it’s so possible.”

Mr. Musah mentioned that when he obtained the information he was lastly virus-free, it was like the beginning of an entire new life: no extra spending a lot of every day questioning how he may pay for medicine or assessments, or if he may do it earlier than the virus killed him.

“Now I’m free to plan a future,” he mentioned.