Health care in Egypt

I would recommend that you contact or look online at your embassy and see which clinics, Drs and hospitaks they recommend and who speak your mother tongue fluently . I would also be aware their is a high rate of Hep C in Egypt and would not be looking for cheap health care , the costs are very reasonable anyway compared to what you pay in a western medical system .

This linked thread contains some information related to Hepatitis c virus within Egypt.

This link is to the Egyptian Ministry of Health and planning Via Google in English it contains some related information on many subjects Mohp.gov.eg

There are 3 hospitals in Egypt who have recieved the Joint Commission International for Accreditation of hospitals. They are: Maghrabi hospital, Dar el Fouad, and Al Salam Hospital.
The Childrens Cancer Hospital is currently on an accreditation track.
Otherwise, the best way to go is yes through your embassy, and 2ndly and more importantly is word of mouth.
The best one to tell you a good doctor, is another patient.
good luck!

This is related information about one type of flu virus (Avain H5N1) Which is endemic within many of the poultry populations of rural Egypt with most being raised and kept for personal use.

This virus has normally been confined to birds but within certain countries it is being passed from animals and birds to humans.

Its best to avoid handling all poultry when visiting the country side from November Thur may as this is the peak season for this flu virus.

I only mention this for the sake of the children as they love to play with all types of animals.

The processed poultry products are just fine to eat as they all now under-go regular testing prior to being slaughtered for human consumption.

From December 1st 2010 Thur April 10 2011 twenty five cases have been reported within Egypt.below is the most recent information released by both the Egyptian ministry of health and the world health org.

Avian influenza - situation in Egypt - update 496 April 2011 - The Ministry of Health of Egypt has announced four new confirmed cases of human infection with avian influenza A(H5N1) virus.

The first case is a one year old male from Behaira Governorate. He developed symptoms on 14 February, was hospitalized on 16 February. He recovered and was discharged on 22 February.

The second case is a three years old female from Behaira Governorate. She developed symptoms on 10 March, was hospitalized on 12 March. She recovered and was discharged on 18 March. The previous two cases are from the same district but different villages and they are not relatives.

The third case a 34 year old female from Alexandria Governorate. She developed symptoms on 9 March and was hospitalized on 15th March. She is still under treatment in a stable condition.

The fourth case is a 30 years old female from Kafr El-Shaikh Governorate. She developed symptoms on 7 March and was hospitalized on 15 March. She recovered and was discharged on 27 March.

Investigations into the source of infection indicate that all cases had exposure to sick and/or dead poultry suspected to have avian influenza.

The cases were confirmed by the Egyptian Central Public Health Laboratories, a National Influenza Center of the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance Network.

Of the 137 cases confirmed to date in Egypt, 45 have been fatal.

This report is from the WHO today and contains information on four more confirmed cases of H5N1 Infections in humans.

Avian influenza - situation in Egypt -
update 50

11 April 2011 - The Ministry of Health of Egypt has announced four new confirmed cases of human infection with avian influenza A(H5N1) virus.

The first case is a 20 years old female from Behaira Governorate. She developed symptoms on 14 March and was hospitalized on 19 March. She was in a critical condition and died on 28 March.

The second case is a two years old female from Menofeya Governorate. She developed symptoms on 26 March and was hospitalized on 27 March. She is still under treatment and in a stable condition.

The third case is a 55 year old female from Behaira Governorate. She developed symptoms on 20 March and was hospitalized on 22 March. She recovered and was discharged on 5 April.

The fourth case is a 1 year old male from Fayoum Governorate He developed symptoms on 20 March and was hospitalized on 28 March. He is still under treatment and in a stable condition.

All the cases received oseltamivir treatment at the time of hospitalization.

Investigations into the source of infection indicate that the cases had exposure to sick and/or dead poultry suspected to have avian influenza.

The cases were confirmed by the Egyptian Central Public Health Laboratories, a National Influenza Center of the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance Network.

Of the 141 cases confirmed to date in Egypt, 46 have been fatal

Hi, here are some important infection control guidlines that should be implemented in the dental office: 

Infection control in dental office

* What are (Universal precautions ) ?
They are are safety procedures that are used for each and every patient to prevent the transmission of the AIDS virus and other infectious diseases.

* How is the examination room cleaned and disinfected , and how often ?
Before you enter the room and every after each patient, all surfaces, such as the dental chair, dental light, & drawer handles must be cleaned and decontaminated.

* How are the instruments are steralized ?
All instruments that touch patients are heat-sterilized after each patient's use in a process called autoclaving. Items that are not heat-sterilized are disposed of and a new one is used for each patient.

* If you'd like to see how and where it's done, ask the dental staff to show you.

* Why 'Class-B' Autoclave (steriliser) ?
Class-B sterilisers create a vacuum, thus removing air from the load prior to the chamber being pressurised with steam.
This technique allows faster and more effective steam penetration throughout the entire instrument load than other techniques typically employed in other sterilisers.

As a result, Class B autoclaves are strongly recommended for the sterilisation of dental instruments, especially handpieces.

I think this will be case number 142 and the 47th fatality since 2006.This is the twelfth case of h5n1 infection made public over the last two weeks.

18/04/2011: Egypt - Highly pathogenic avian influenzaYesterday, April 19, 2011, 9:12:33 PM
Confirmed Highly pathogenic avian influenza in Al Fayyum (fayoum), for human (human)

Avian influenza H5N1 - situation in Egypt - update 51
21 April 2011 - On 16 April 2011, the Ministry of Health of Egypt notified WHO of two new cases of human infection with avian influenza A (H5N1) virus.

The first case was a 29 years-old male from Fayoum Governorate Wadi Elrian area who developed symptoms on 1 April , was hospitalized on 4 April and died on 7 April.

The second case was a one -and-a -half year-old male child from Fayoum Governorate, Sennores District who developed symptoms on 9 April and was hospitalized on 11 April. He is under treatment and is in stable condition.

All the cases received oseltamivir treatment at the time of hospitalization.

Investigations into the source of infection indicate that both the cases had exposure to sick and/or dead poultry suspected to have avian influenza. There is no epidemiological link identified between these two cases. The cases were confirmed by the Egyptian Central Public Health Laboratories, a National Influenza Center of the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance Network.

Of the 143 cases confirmed to date in Egypt, 47 have been fatal .

This link is to the mohp site in Egypt for human cases of h5n1 avian flu and it contains the history and current information/status cumulative from 2006

AVIAN INFLUENZA, HUMAN (44): EGYPT, WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION
*************************************************************
A ProMED-mail post

ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases


Date: Wed 1 Jun 2011
Source: World Health Organisation (WHO), CSR, Disease Outbreak News
[edited]



Avian influenza situation in Egypt -- WHO update 52
---------------------------------------------------
The Ministry of Health of Egypt has announced a new confirmed case of
human infection with avian influenza A (H5N1) virus.

The case is a 30-year-old female from Amria District, Alexandria
Governorate. She developed symptoms on 26 Apr 2011 and was
hospitalized on 3 May 2011. She was in a critical condition under
artificial ventilation and died on 9 May 2011. She had received
oseltamivir treatment at the time of hospitalization.

Investigations into the source of infection indicate that the patient
had exposure to sick poultry suspected to have avian influenza.

The case was confirmed by the Egyptian Central Public Health
Laboratory, a National Influenza Center of the WHO Global Influenza
Surveillance Network. Of the 144 cases confirmed to date in Egypt, 48
have been fatal.

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Marianne Hopp

[This brings the overall total of human cases of avian influenza
A/H5N1 virus infection since the beginning of the outbreak in 2003 to 554, and the number of fatalities to 324. There have now been 38 cases of avian A/H5N1 influenza in 2011 and 18 fatalities.

During the 1st 5 months of 2011, 25 of the 38 new human cases (66
percent) have been recorded in Egypt, but only 8 of the 18 fatalities (44 percent).

Date: Fri 27 May 2011
Source: CIDRAP (Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy) News [edited]



H5N1 strains in Egypt show increased ability to bind to human cells
-------------------------------------------------------------------
H5N1 avian influenza viruses in Egypt have branched into new
sublineages and have shown a mutation that helps them bind more
readily to human cell receptors in the lower respiratory tract, which may indicate an increased pandemic potential, according to a study published yesterday [26 May issue of PLoS Pathogens -- see below for reference, author summary, and abstract - Mod.CP].

Researchers from Egypt, Japan, and Thailand conducted a phylogenetic analysis of H5N1 viruses isolated from 2006 to 2009 in Egypt. Using reverse genetics, they found that several new sublineages have acquired an enhanced receptor-binding affinity of the viral hemagglutinin to alpha-2,6-linked sialic acid (SA), which is a receptor-binding trait of human influenza strains. The mutation was associated with increased attachment to and infectivity in the lower respiratory tract but not the larynx of humans and also demonstrated increased virulence in mice.

The authors conclude, Our findings suggested that emergence of new H5 sublineages with alpha-2,6 SA specificity caused a subsequent increase in human H5N1 influenza virus infections in Egypt, and provided data for understanding the virus's pandemic potential."

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail


[Following are the reference, abstract, and author summary of the
publication referred to above. The full article is available at
/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1002068>

Title: Acquisition of human-type receptor binding specificity by new H5N1 influenza virus sublineages during their emergence in birds in Egypt

Authors: Y Watanabe 1, MS Ibrahim 1,2, HF Ellakany 3, N Kawashita
4,5, R Mizuike 1, H Hiramatsu 6, N Sriwilaijaroen 6,7, T Takagi 4,5, Y Suzuki 6, K Ikuta 1
1. Department of Virology, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases (BIKEN), Osaka University, Osaka, Japan
2. Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine,
Alexandria University, Damanhour Branch, Egypt
3. Department of Poultry Diseases and Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Alexandria University, Edfina Branch, Egypt
4. Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka University,
Osaka, Japan
5. Genome Information Research Center, Research Institute for
Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan
6. Health Scientific Hills, College of Life and Health Sciences,
Chubu University, Aichi, Japan
7. Faculty of Medicine, Thammasat University (Rangsit Campus),
PathumThani, Thailand

Author summary
---------------
"Even though highly pathogenic avian H5N1 influenza viruses lack an efficient mechanism for human-human transmission, these viruses are endemic in birds in China, Indonesia, Viet Nam, and Egypt. Hotspots for bird-human transmission are indicated in areas where human cases are more than 80 percent of total H5N1 influenza cases. Circulation among hosts may allow H5N1 virus to acquire amino acid changes enabling efficient bird-human transmission and eventually human-human transmission. The receptor specificity of viral hemagglutinin (HA) is
considered a main factor affecting efficient transmissibility. Several amino acid substitutions in H5 virus HAs that increase their human-type receptor specificity have been described in virus isolates from patients, but their prevalence has been limited. In contrast, we show here that new H5 sublineages in Egypt have acquired a change in receptor specificity during their diversification in birds. We found that viruses in those sublineages exhibited increased attachment and infectivity in the human lower respiratory tract, but not in the larynx. Our findings may not allow a conclusion on the high pandemic
potential of H5N1 virus in Egypt, but helps explain why Egypt has
recently had the highest number of human H5 cases worldwide."

Abstract
--------
"Highly pathogenic avian influenza A virus subtype H5N1 is currently
widespread in Asia, Europe, and Africa, with 60 percent mortality in
humans. In particular, since 2009 Egypt has unexpectedly had the
highest number of human cases of H5N1 virus infection, with more than
50 percent of the cases worldwide, but the basis for this high
incidence has not been elucidated. A change in receptor binding
affinity of the viral hemagglutinin (HA) from alpha-2,3- to
alpha-2,6-linked sialic acid (SA) is thought to be necessary for H5N1
virus to become pandemic. In this study, we conducted a phylogenetic
analysis of H5N1 viruses isolated between 2006 and 2009 in Egypt. The
phylogenetic results showed that recent human isolates clustered
disproportionately into several new H5 sublineages suggesting that
their HAs have changed their receptor specificity. Using reverse
genetics, we found that these H5 sublineages have acquired an enhanced
binding affinity for alpha-2,6 SA in combination with residual
affinity for alpha-2,3 SA, and identified the amino acid mutations
that produced this new receptor specificity. Recombinant H5N1 viruses
with a single mutation at HA residue 192 or a double mutation at HA
residues 129 and 151 had increased attachment to and infectivity in
the human lower respiratory tract but not in the larynx. These
findings correlated with enhanced virulence of the mutant viruses in
mice. Interestingly, these H5 viruses, with increased affinity to
alpha-2,6 SA, emerged during viral diversification in bird populations
and subsequently spread to humans. Our findings suggested that
emergence of new H5 sublineages with alpha-2,6 SA specificity caused a
subsequent increase in human H5N1 influenza virus infections in Egypt,
and provided data for understanding the virus's pandemic potential."

These conclusions are derived from phylogenetic analysis, _in vitro_ experiments with fixed tissue and cultured cells, and reverse genetic constructs in laboratory mice. They clearly indicate that the emergence of a new H5 sublineage with alpha-2,6 SA binding specificity caused a subsequent increase in human H5N1 influenza virus infections in Egypt. These genetic changes affect the transmissibility of avian influenza A/(H5N1) virus from birds to humans, but do not on the basis of the epidemiology in Egypt appear determine transmissibility of
infection among humans. - Mod.CP]

[The ProMED/HealthMap interactive map of Egypt is at:
- Mod.JW]