Five-time world footballer of the year, Lionel Messi, has postponed his proposed visit to Egypt following FC Barcelona’s 4-0 defeat at Paris Saint Germain in the Champions League on Tuesday.
The Argentine striker was scheduled to arrive in Cairo on Wednesday, to take part in promoting a campaign, which targets attracting Hepatitis C patients to health tourism in Egypt.
According to a statement issued by the promotion’s sponsor company, Messi could not leave his team at such a predicament following the heavy defeat in Paris.
The visit is set to be rescheduled for a later timing, which has not been set yet.
Supported by the Egyptian ministries of tourism and aviation respectively, the campaign was launched by the Egyptian government in June in order to motivate global Hepatitis C patients to seek cheap and effective treatment in Egypt.
According to a statement issued by the company promoting the campaign, Hepatitis C treatment in Europe costs around 100,000 Euros when it does not exceed 4,900 Euros in Egypt.
Egypt’s efforts in combating the disease have been praised by the World Health Organization (WHO), after a state-run campaign treated nearly one million Egyptians from Hepatitis C between 2015 and 2017.
It is the second time Messi postpones his Egypt trip, after a Cairo cathedral bombing in December delayed the visit’s original schedule last December.
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