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Background Social stigma associated with infectious diseases existed throughout the history of pandemics due to fears of contagion and death. This study aims to assess social and self-stigma resulting from COVID-19 infection and other associated factors in Egypt during the pandemic. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted on 533 adult Egyptians via an online questionnaire. The questionnaire included social stigma toward current and recovered COVID-19 patients and the negative self-image of being a COVID-19 patient. Results The mean calculated overall COVID-19-related stigma score for the studied sample was 4.7±3.1. The highest reported stigma category was mild stigma: Social stigma towards current COVID-19 patients (88.2%), Social stigma toward recovered COVID-19 patients (64.2%), Negative self-image for being a COVID-19 patient; perceived self-stigma (71.6%) and total stigma score (88.2%) respectively. The overall stigma score was negatively associated with a higher level of education and getting information from healthcare workers and positively associated with getting information from social networks. Conclusion Social and self-stigma related to COVID-19 infection was mild from the Egyptian perspective but found in a large proportion of the population and mainly affected by getting information from healthcare workers or through social media and being more among those with lower education levels. The study recommends more legislative control on social media for disseminating health-related information and conducting awareness campaigns to counteract these adverse effects.

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BACKGROUND: Egypt is the country with the greatest number of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 4 infections. The latest mass screening campaign in Egypt in 2018 reported an overall HCV seroprevalence of 4.61% (95% confidence interval 4.61 to 4.62) among the 48,345,948 subjects tested. The prevalence of HCV in the cancer population is estimated to range from 1.5 to 32%. HCV per se might directly influence health-related quality of life (HRQoL), via colonization of microglia in the brain or, indirectly, via the effect of systemic inflammatory cytokines which, in turn, can trigger brain interleukin production. Thus, there is an increased interest about the effect of the dual burden of HCV in cancer patients and its impact on the patients’’ HRQoL. AIM: The study is conducted at the outpatient chemotherapy unit of a university hospital in Egypt, over a period of 6 months to estimate their quality of life (QoL) scores according to the European Organization for Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ)-C30 v3. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted, including all patients referred to the chemotherapy clinic during the study period and proven to be HCV positive. Recruited patients were asked to fill the EORTC QLQ-C30 v3 questionnaire, and data regarding their medical conditions were collected from their medical files. RESULTS: One hundred and sixteen (8.8%) patients were HCV positive. QoL scores were statistically significantly lower from almost all reference values categories published in the EORTC manual.