Latest update on Quarantine at Cairo Airport

Flew in this morning from Dubai. Had heard a few stories of the nurses at the Cairo airport, most of them uncomplimentary. Was completely prepared to give them a earfull - Egyptian style - if they decided to thrust a reused thermometer in my ear, wiped with the same swab of cotton over the day.

They were a lot less nurses swarming around, than when I returned to Cairo at the beginning of the month. They seemed to be better organised. I didn't see signs of a thermometer, but there were 2 video cameras which passengers had to file in front of. Some passengers were made to show their side profiles, chin up-chin down the type of mug shots you see taken in Hollywood before seomeone is thrown into jail. How these passengers were singled out, I have no clue.

I did what I normally do in Egypt, ignore everyone and walk past them, unless they are authority figures who try really hard to get your attention for a seemingly relevant reason ("I want to marry you", "are you married?" does not count)

Some of the Immigration officials who were walking around, among the queued up public had masks on, but the latex gloves were no longer visible.

So that's the status today at 7:30am.

Have a pic of the video sessions, will try & upload that, once I download it off my phone.

Screening at Egypt Airports - Advisory from Danish Embassy

Thanks "S" for forwarding this info.

Dear Colleague

I obtained the following information from a variety of sources, Ministry of Health, all UK Honorary Consul's (apart from Alexandria) and the MFA and would be grateful if you could pass to all EU colleagues. Their input and experiences would be useful if they have any additional information they can share with us all.

The Ministry of Health are still confirming no reported cases in Egypt of the H1N1 virus

Airport Screening:- Currently in place at Cairo, Hurghada, Luxor, Sharm El Sheikh and Taba airports

Full medical screening is aimed specifically at those fliights arriving in Egypt from countries that have confirmed/suspected cases of the virus. As well as this, passenger passports are checked on all international flights coming in and those passengers with Mexican stamps in their passports are subject to this screening.

The screening process and the make up of the medical teams should be identical for each airport. These consist of at least 5 doctors, 2 nurses and one medical technician per team.

All passengers arriving are processed by currently having a temperature check by use of a thermometer in the ear to gauge the temperature. Disposable tips for the thermometers are not being effectively employed. The same tip being used for a number of passengers then changed. The Ministry of Health were reluctant to confirm that this was the case and said that there was one tip for each passenger tested - however, on the ground evidence from tour operators in Sharm contradict this statement, the same tips being used on multiple passengers.

However, it is important to note that at Luxor airport for instance - full screening is not being carried out and thermometers are not being used. They have doctors present for international arrivals but their intervention is negligible. Sharm also reports that some of the flights checked appear to be on a random basis. Therefore the medical screening is not consistent and seems to differ from airport to airport despite the guidelines detailed by the Ministry of Health.

To date, no thermal imagers/scanners have been installed at any of the airports.

The benchmark temperature is 38 degrees - anyone showing a temperature above this, is taken to an isolation room at the airport and from there they are transported to the nearest isolation facility where swabs are taken. For airports outside Cairo - all swabs are flown to Cairo for testing. The isolation centre for each airport is as follows:

Cairo: Al-Matar Mental Health Hospital located in the Heliopolis district of Cairo which is the closest medical facilty to Cairo International airport.

Sharm El Sheikh: Sharm International Hospital - a number of rooms at this facility have been set aside as an isolation area

Luxor: Luxor International Hospital - the nearest large hospital with adequate facilities to the airport

Hurghada: Hurghada International Hospital
Alexandria: Not known at this time
Taba: Taba Hospital

Period of quarantine is unknown and each case (if they do confirm one) will be dealt with in line with WHO guidelines on treatment.

I can confirm that the major UK tour companies flying into Egypt are advising clients of medical screening procedures at airports via their websites. They are also advising passengers of this before leaving the UK and on the aircraft whilst enroute.

It may be a good idea if colleagues from countries who do have suspected/confirmed cases perhaps advise their tour operators to do the same.

Regards

Jim Warren

Swine Flu Quarantine for Travellers into Egypt?

There have been some rumors in some parts of the world about Travelers into Egypt being Quarantined. Today I received the same question from 3 different people. Is Egypt quarantining Air travelers and for how long? Since this may be a question that others would like an answer to as well, I am posting it on my blog.

The question of quarantine in Egypt may have arisen, from articles such as this one.

1. From My Personal Experience - 4 May 09:
I flew back to Egypt on the 4th of May from Lebanon. There were about 40 women in masks and gloves standing at the entry into the terminal building when we got off the shuttle bus. They had clipboards in hand. From the bus it looked to us like the terminal was full and it would take forever to complete Immigration. But it was just these women standing around that gave the impression of a huge crowd.

All the passengers walked past these women and went straight to the Immigration desks. The Women did not stop anyone.

The Immigration officials were wearing latex gloves and that was the extent of the precautions that we saw at the Cairo airport.

2. My Husbands Experience - 10 May 09:
My Husband returned from Istanbul, Turkey today. He said that there was a similar crowd of masked women at the terminal building. They seemed to have paired themselves in two's and were asking for passenger passports. My husband handed over his passport to them. The two women did a lot of giggling as they flipped through his passport and then they let him move on to Immigration. He did not fathom what they were looking for. I sincerely hope that they were perhaps looking for proof that the passenger had not passed through Mexico or other badly affected countries, recently.

The Immigration officials were no longer wearing latex gloves.

We both have Resident Visas for Cairo and have been living here for almost 3 years. But we frequently travel in and out of the country.

3. I heard from someone who arrived on the 8th of May 09, that he was asked to fill a form with Name, Address in Egypt and Nationality. Thermometer strips were then used (and reused) to take the passengers temperatures before letting them through.

I have not yet heard of any person being quarantined for the virus, so I would say that it is still safe to travel into Cairo without fear of enforced bed rest at a hospital.

I will keep you informed if any new information comes up that is significant to this issue.

Added on 13 May 09:
International SOS reports:
The government has ordered a psychiatric hospital near Cairo International Airport (CAI) to be converted into a quarantine centre for passengers suspected of infection.

Visit to the Vet

Bacardi was a good doll for most of the visit. She meowed her head off in the car as usual, but I did not let her out of her new carry bag. Just put my hand in and kept petting her. Did not take her out of the bag @ vets (waiting room) either, till we reached her consultation room inside.

Then I kept the bag on the vets table and opened it and she had to be coaxed out, but she sat down quietly on the table once she was out. No catch-me-if-u-can race around the office!

Then I hugged her while she sat quietly. No manic racing around the room, no scratching and clawing. Just let me stand and hug her while she sat in "bastet" position on the table. She then proceeded to let the vet peacefully take a look at her eyes, nose, ears and mouth. Which were all ok.

Then was time for her 2 annual shots. Anti feline rabies and the one for other cat diseases. The doctor turned around to get the injections out of the fridge. Bacardi immediately turned her head into the crook of my elbow as though she did not want to see the injection coming. Even the doctor was laughing at how cute she looked while she filled the syringe. The first one, the doctor gave her at the neck, giving her this shot was not a problem at all (such a huge change) but after the shot, the doctor ruffled her neck fur to soothe her, but this had the complete opp effect as madam doesn’t like anyone reaching at her neck.

So she started protesting. I held her and calmed her down and told the doc to give the second injection elsewhere. So she gave it to her in the rump, which she also was ok with.

Then told the doc I had started her on revolution a couple of months ago, which to me seemed to be good in controlling the fleas and ear mites but I wasn't sure about its efficacy as a worm medicine. I had carried the medicine details, but the doc already knew about this medicine. She also confirmed my fears that it wasn't effective for the worms (she told me this, before I mentioned my same fear)

So now had to give the brat her worm medicine tablet which is as large as a aspirin. I knew this was gonna be tough, so instead of hugging her, I now caught a tight hold on the 2 front legs close to her body and the vet tried to put the tablet in her mouth. It came out as promptly as it went in and then madam slobbered like crazy to get the taste out of her mouth.


The doc said don’t worry, we will make her have it. So in it went, in attempt no 2. The vet held her mouth closed and massaged the throat so she would swallow the tablet. For the first minute she refused to swallow, and managed to scratch me royally, then finally she swallowed, so the vet let go.

One reverse contraction by madam and out it was again and this time she slobbered more than before.

Now the vet was really determined to make it go in. She took some cheese out of the fridge, wrapped the tablet in the soft cheese and repeated attempt no 2. Madam spat it out from the side of her mouth.

For the fourth attempt, we rewrapped it in fresh cheese and this time covered all angles and held the mouth shut for 3 minutes, till we felt it go down the throat to a bit lower. Only then did we give her more cheese so she would focus on swallowing rather than regurgitating and this time it stayed down!

Dread the time when I have to give her the second dose in 14 days at home and this time I will have to do it alone! Will have to powder it and mix it with the tinned mackerel treats if I hope to have any of it go down.

Then there is a gland above the butt which secretes some stuff, which if not cleaned regularly could give rise to infection. I have never heard of this before, but the last time we cleaned it at the vets a year ago, a lot of icky stuff came out. This time there wasn't even 10% of the last time, so the vet said it was a good sign.

Once this was finished, I let her go, she promptly jumped down and ran to her bag and went inside and sat tight. She was very happy when I zipped her in. This is a good sign that she is starting to see the bag as a safe place, it will make it easier for us to get her in there if we need to transport her anywhere. (We just carried her around in our arms for the first year and our backs received a couple of scratches whenever something startled her, she also managed to break 2 thin chains around my neck on seperate occasions)

So this is the highlight of my month!

A relatively stress and fight and race free visit to the vet. and an all clear bill of health to my brat. :)


Note : My vet is really good and kind and gentle with the cat. She never rushes me, listens to everything I have to say and makes informed decisions. She is well read and up-to-date which is much more than I can say of many of the Doctors in Egypt that we have visited for ourselves.

She normally schedules surgeries on Saturday's. She spayed my cat a year ago and it was one of the smallest incisions that I have seen done for spaying here in Egypt.

Her contact information is here.

Vet Recommendation

I go to a vet in 6th of October for my cat. Its a set of 3 doctors who take it in turns to (wo)man the clinic. Dr Rania is the female doc and she performs all the surgeries.

I'm very happy with them. I got this cat when she was a little older - 3 years old. She has done dental surgery on my cat as well as her spaying. She's very clean and neat with minimal invasion.

You can always call ahead and get an appointment.

Its called "Vets in Practice". The number is 3837 8336 at the 6th October City branch and 2516 4428 at the Maadi branch.

While the clinic is in 6th October City, I live in Mohandaseen. I still feel its worth the travel time because I'm really comfortable with these doctors.

They have a facility for boarding cats. They are comfortable cages and they are let out for an hour or so daily. I don't mind this when my cat needs medical attention - because they are very conscientious about it. But if its for a longer period of boarding - when I'm traveling, I prefer to leave her with a friend so she has full freedom to walk around.

Update

The husband has been sick with some kinda stomach bug that has been troubling him for the alst 11 days.

did a whole range of tests on him and they all came back normal.

Seems like he is suffering a major bout of gastritis. From what i understand there are these major infections going around in Bangalore and in Canada. Haven't heard anyone else in Cairo who has had this currently though.

The only solution seems to be an extremely light diet of fresh fruits, raw vegetable and fresh fruit juices.

Hope he gets back to normal soon. With his strict diet, I also seem to be losing weight, which is a good thing :)

Homeopathy in Cairo

I was looking for a Homeopathy dispensary and got varied answers from my friends.

1. I heard about this place recently and saw that they do homeopathic medicine. http://www.jamilina.com/ It's in Medinet Nasr, which I know its a bit far from you, but you could try calling them and they might know of somewhere nearer.

2. There is Dr. Magda El-Mahgary, based in Maadi, who does make homeopathic remedies.
From her you can buy homeopathic remedies, and she also has a list of all natural medicines available from Egyptian pharmacies.

3. The official homeopathy website for Egypt is http://www.h2rc2.com/
Mind that strictly speaking, homeopathy is illegal in Egypt as it is not yet accepted officially as a branch of medicine. But the local homeopathy society is in the making and alive and kicking in practice. They more or less regularly offer introductory and advanced courses

Kims Note: The actual practitioners are listed here http://www.h2rc2.com/pages/Qualifiedhomeopaths.html and here http://www.h2rc2.com/ESSH/page9/page9.html


4. This information may be out-of-date
Dr. Magda prepares the remedies herself and sells them together with all kinds of macrobiotic food in her own shop in Heliopolis.
One remedy costs 25 LE. She also offer one day classes for 300 LE/person about homoepathic treatment.
Her shop is called Medina an-nawara and is located in 30 Shibin street, off Iman Ali between Salah eh Din and Ismailaya Square.
The shop is open on Tuesdays from 11.30am until 3pm. Or you can call her secretary Miss Reda on 6441479