Quarantine authorities at Cairo Airport declared a state of emergency after news of the cholera epidemic in Yemen.
The declaration came upon instructions from the Ministry of Health to tighten control at Egypt’s airports and seaports to protect the country from the possible infiltration of cholera from travelers arriving on flights from Aden or Si’oun Airport in Hadramout to Egypt, said Medhat Qandil, director of the Quarantine Department at the airport.
The Ministry of Health has doubled the number of doctors and health observers at arrival halls in airports to examine passengers coming from the affected areas, Qandil added.
The data of all passengers coming from plagued areas is being recorded, even if they show no symptoms, so the Ministry can follow up on them after they enter Egypt, according to Qandil.
In the case that any passenger is suspected to be carrying the disease, they will be isolated and transferred immediately to Abbasiya’s specialized fever hospital to conduct tests, a Cairo Airport quarantine source said.
Cholera has spread through several Yemeni provinces, leaving more than 7 million Yemenis at risk, according to the WHO.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
