Pics: Egyptian medical convoy tell about trip to Zanzibar where 170 surgeries were performed in 8 days

CAIRO – 5 August 2021: An Egyptian medical convoy has returned from an eight-day trip to Tanzania where they performed dozens of surgeries in a rural area in Zanzibar.

Doctor Mohamed al-Dahshoury, dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Aswan University, said the medical convoy embarked on the trip July 22-July 30 with doctors from several countries including Egypt, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia to answer to critical cases and child deformities.

 

The work was done in Pemba, an island in the archipelago of Zanzibar, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., all free of charge.

 

More than 1,500 patients were examined, and more than 170 surgeries of different specialties were performed. Dahshoury performed 29 surgeries on child deformities, including bladder exstrophy and intersex children who passed the ideal age of the surgeries. He performed six surgeries daily.

 

Two children were registered as female at birth but after a chromosome analysis and the intervention their sex was modified to male. A 16-year-old boy had bladder exstrophy, which required intervention during the 72 hours following birth. The surgery has thus resolved his bedwetting issue.

 

The Tanzanian Health Ministry held a ceremony to honor the Egyptian medical convoy, asking for more medical cooperation. A protocol was signed between the University of Aswan and Tanzania to receive Tanzanian students.

 

Dr. Ahmed Salah, professor of urology and endoscopy at Aswan University, said Tanzanian patients desperately needed doctors in specific fields. In a list of 100 people of who needed surgery, only 25 of them underwent the operations and the rest were administered medications. The recovery rate was 100 percent, Salah added.

Tanzanian officials appreciated the work of the Egyptian convoy, especially that it was in a rural area, according to Salah.

The University of Aswan in southern Egypt has established the African Support Unit at the faculty of Medicine to continue voluntary work in African nations.