Health Minister: Egypt is safe from cholera threat

CAIRO – 3 July 2017: “Egypt is safe and visitors arriving in the country have not been found to be carrying the cholera infection,” said the Minister of Health and Population Ahmed Emad El-Din Rady on Monday in an exclusive interview with Egypt Today.

Furthermore, he pointed out that the ministry has taken robust precautious and quarantine measures to prevent the spread of the potentially deadly disease from Sudan and Yemen, which are both currently suffering outbreaks of the disease.

The Minister of Health stated that all concerned parties are coordinating in order to prevent the spread of the disease through travelers coming from infected countries.

On June 29, authorities at Cairo International Airport screened Sudanese passengers for cholera under the instructions of the World Health Organization (WHO) as some areas in Sudan have been infected by the disease.

In early June, the U.S. Embassy in Sudan warned citizens against a cholera outbreak, saying that cases had been confirmed to have resulted in fatalities, including some in the greater Khartoum area.
According to Yemen's health authorities, more than 100 people have died because of the cholera outbreak in the country.

On June 22, UN Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O'Brien described Yemen's cholera outbreak as “a man-made catastrophe caused by the warring sides in the country's civil war and their international backers.”

Cholera is an acute diarrheal disease that leads to severe dehydration due to a massive loss of bodily fluids.

According to the WHO, “Every year 3 to 5 million people around the world are infected with cholera and 100,000 to 120,000 people die from the infectious disease.”