CAIRO: Typhoid cases in Qaliubiya reached 164 on Saturday in two of the governorate's villages. Nasr El-Sayed, assistant health minister for preventative medicine, said that all patients are undergoing treatment in hospitals in Qaliubiya. He also asserted that these infections are restricted to Qaliubiya, denying allegations of infected cases in the governorates of Gharbeya and Beni Suef. The patients are thought to have caught the disease as a result of drinking contaminated water, which led the governorate to cut off the water supply from both villages. The contaminated water resulted from a break in the main water pipes that caused drinking water to mix with sewage water. Typhoid, which causes high fever, diarrhea and at times complete loss of consciousness, is usually a result of consuming contaminated food or water. Abdel Rahman Shahin, spokesman of the Ministry of Health, said that the disease is "under control. He added that there is a team from the ministry in Qaliubiya equipped with 16 medical vehicles to examine suspected cases. Governor of Qaliubiya Adly Hussein fired the contractor responsible for constructing the water networks in one of the villages, and he is now under investigations.
