Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Population, said that his visit to Aswan Governorate was to respond to what has been circulated recently about the presence of intestinal infections in Aswan, adding: “The first appearance of intestinal infections in Aswan was on September 16.”
He added during a press conference from Aswan Governorate: “The cases that appeared at the beginning had symptoms of vomiting, colic, diarrhea and high temperatures. The truth is that they did not start on the 16th, but rather started two or three days before. The monitoring devices at the Ministry of Health reported the presence of 8 cases suffering from intestinal flu in Daraw Hospital, and 22 cases in the Abu al-Rish area.”
The Minister stressed that the state does not hide anything in its dealings with the disease cases in Aswan, noting that President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi follows up on the situation in Aswan Governorate on a daily basis.
Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Population, said that the geographical areas affected by gastroenteritis in Aswan Governorate prompted the Director of Health Affairs to inform the monitoring agencies in the Ministry of Health of the matter, adding: “We have monitoring in all governorates of the Republic, and we have committees to manage the situation in cooperation with the governorate and the relevant agencies,” noting that “the total number of cases that have visited hospitals suffering from gastroenteritis since the emergence of these cases in Aswan is about 480 cases, and the frequency means that he went to hospitals and emergency rooms to monitor complaints and take treatment, and these were simple symptoms.”
Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Population, pointed out that the cases of intestinal flu in Aswan who needed health care such as installing solutions or health follow-up reached 168 cases, because they did not reach the hospital for treatment in a timely manner. 49 cases were discharged from them and the remaining 78 cases are recovering, stressing that all cases are stable and we have 36 cases in intermediate and intensive care and these suffer from chronic diseases. The hospitals that received the cases reached 4 hospitals in Aswan.
Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Population, explained that there are 5 deaths whose connection to cases that showed symptoms of gastroenteritis in Aswan Governorate has not been confirmed, and the connection of the cases to the event has not been confirmed, including a death that underwent all medical tests and was negative for all types of microbes, and there are two cases from outside the region, and there are cases that had chronic diseases. He pointed out that “the rate of cases visiting hospitals is declining.. and there is a difference between visiting the hospital or staying.. and the average daily frequency is between 18-19 cases per day in each Aswan Governorate.. and these are very normal rates in light of the rates of infection with gastroenteritis.”
Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Population, said that there is a decrease in the number of cases infected with intestinal flu in Aswan, and we expect this decrease to continue within a week from today, because the incubation period of the microbe reaches 3-5 days, and within a week the cases will completely recede, and we began to notice this since yesterday.
He added during a press conference: “Aswan Governorate is not small and the numbers we are talking about compared to the size of the governorate are not large.. All cases receive all care and attention at all levels of the state and the procedures that have been followed since the first report by forming a committee from the Preventive Medicine Department headed by the Deputy Minister of Health and communicating with the Minister of Housing and forming a working team from the Ministry of Housing and the Drinking Water and Sanitation Company and communicating with the Governor of Aswan to cooperate through a work cell and meetings throughout the day to manage all matters to determine the causes of intestinal infections.”
Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Population, said that there is an integrated system for detecting the Nile River waters in which more than one ministry participates, including the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources, which obtains water samples on a daily and weekly basis, and the work is done in very advanced laboratories.
He added during a press conference from Aswan Governorate: “This water then goes to treatment plants that are under the supervision of the Ministry of Housing and the Holding Company for Drinking Water, and they undergo periodic treatment and analysis operations until they reach the role of the Ministry of Health when the water is released into homes, in addition to the work of the Ministry of Environment and Local Development.”
The minister continued: “There is a complex system to ensure that every drop of water in the Nile River reaches the citizen. This is done in normal cases. We collected all the data and investigated the facts and met with all the health service providers in Aswan. We are fully prepared through the Ministry of Health. The goal was to assess the epidemiological situation. This is done at the global level. We have sectors in preventive medicine and knowing the real diagnosis of cases. Many diseases have the same symptom. The goal was to know the main cause.”
Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Minister of Health, said that they visited 315 homes and examined 2,179 individuals to identify and study common causes and identify those who came into contact with the disease cases.
He stressed that what is being circulated on social media platforms by malicious parties whose goal is to spread baseless rumors, is that the occupancy rates at Al-Sadaka Hospital are about 37% for internal departments and about 60 to 65% for intensive care beds, and these are the usual rates during this time of year.
For his part, Sherif El-Sherbiny, Minister of Housing, said that the state is making great efforts in the water file, such as the one in Aswan Governorate, commenting: “We serve our people in Aswan Governorate with a total of 108 water stations, including 5 main stations and 103 sub-stations.”
Al-Sherbiny added, during a press conference, that there are 385 thousand cubic meters produced per day, which serves all the people of Aswan Governorate, whose number is about 1.6 million people within the governorate.
Sherif El-Sherbiny, Minister of Housing, said that the samples taken from water stations in Aswan Governorate were verified, and they were indeed in compliance with the standard specifications and criteria, commenting: “After monitoring the cases, we intensified the campaigns of reports and results through the Holding Company for Drinking Water and Sanitation and the Regulatory Authority for Drinking Water and Sanitation affiliated with the Ministry, as it is a supervisory body within the Ministry to examine samples randomly and continuously.
He added that the problem of the emergence of cases in Aswan was not a water problem, explaining: “We worked through a joint operations room with the Ministry of Health in cooperation with the Aswan Governorate, and we launched field work groups on the ground with the aim of investigating and identifying the causes and justifications for the problem.” He continued: “After the stage of examining the water stations completely, we resorted to examining the sub-networks themselves, but we found that they also conformed to the specifications and standard criteria.
Major General Ismail Kamal, Governor of Aswan, confirmed that medical teams were dispatched early and that cases of intestinal flu were dealt with quickly on the ground, adding: “We were exposed to a large number of rumors during the past period.”
He added during a press conference: “All the people of Aswan cooperated and it was proven that there is no problem in Aswan. We have to convey the truth. We are waiting for the start of the winter tourist season starting next Friday and there are no cancellations in the hotels. The whole world sees the truth of what is happening in the land of Aswan and I drank with the tap water and I am fine and well and in front of you.”
The Deputy Prime Minister, accompanied by Dr. Amr Qandil, Deputy Minister of Health and Population, and Major General Ismail Kamal, Governor of Aswan, inspected Aswan Specialized Hospital in New Friendship, visited the hospital departments, and checked on the health condition of those suffering from intestinal flu.