By Kenneth Changpertitum
A malaria outbreak has infected 13 people in the Al-Adwa village of Edfu in Aswan, the Ministry of Health stated Friday evening.
The ministry added that all those infected are in stable condition and are receiving necessary treatment at the Edfu Fever Hospital and Aswan University Hospital. Two of the patients are expected to exit the hospital Saturday.
As a preventive measure, the ministry examined 561 people, conducted blood tests and collected mosquitoes in the area for examination, in addition to spraying down the habitats of mosquito larvae with insecticide.
Dr Amr Kandil, head of preventive medicine at the Ministry of Health, said the ministry sent a team from the Preventive Medicine Sector to one of the villages in the centre of Edfu in Aswan to monitor the scale of the outbreak, after the emergence of infected cases of malaria in the village.
Malaria is a mosquito born disease with periodic attacks of chills, fever, headaches, and vomiting. If not treated, malaria can quickly become life-threatening by disrupting the blood supply to vital organs. Symptoms usually appear between 10 and 15 days after infection.
Dr Kandil said the small outbreak may have come from Sudanese migrants who came to the village looking for work. “The workers may have been infected with the disease, because Malaria has been here in Egypt, but not in Sudan,” he said.
He added mosquitoes may have bitten the workers, transmitting the virus, before laying eggs which will hatch larva that carry the disease. The health ministry is currently running blood tests to examine this theory.
The first two cases of Malaria were discovered in The Badfo Eastern province of Aswan earlier this week.
Sudanese fearing stigmatisation and prejudice have left the village, he said.
