Cairo airport takes steps to stop cholera spread from Yemen

Cairo airport is introducing emergency measures, including quarantine, to prevent the spread of a cholera outbreak in Yemen by flights arriving from the war-torn Arab nation.

The Health Ministry said on Tuesday that incoming passengers and returnees would face screenings to ensure that they do not carry the illness, and airport and port controls would be tightened.

Cairo is a main connecting point for Yemen, with flights to and from the capital, Sanaa, and other areas. However, the civil war in the Arab world’s poorest country occasionally disrupts the flights.

The U.N. says that Yemen’s cholera outbreak has killed 124 people over the past two weeks. Less than 45 per cent of Yemen’s health facilities are fully functioning, and the flow of “essential medicines” has fallen by nearly 70 per cent.