Professional Dr Samy Abdelsamad speaks out about the truths of medical therapy in Egypt
The Covid-19 quarantine has negatively impacted many therapies and centres that used to look forward to this time as a boom in demand for alternative therapy, Dr Samy Abdelsamad gives his take on these issues and clarifies some of the issues regarding the coronavirus and even some issues unrelated to it.
Now that most roads are closed and closely monitored by the government, travel between cities in Egypt has become much harder than before, due to that the therapy centers that were reliant on both inner and outer medical tourism are unable to survive. Seeing that some of these therapy centres don’t receive care from the government or have the capacity of advertising their services, they have a grim reality to face.
Siwa in particular is struggling because they are not having as much tourism as they had expected, contrary to the previous state update. It is in the midst of dry season as far as therapies are concerned.
Which therapies to try during Ramadan
In addition to the entire country being quarantined, Egypt is also facing another event, the month of Ramadan has arrived and with it people might be scared of trying nearby alternative therapies, Dr. Samy the dean of physical therapy section in the Chinese university in Egypt and a member in the physical therapy syndicate has clarified the therapies he usually conducts in the holy month of Ramadan.
“In Ramadan we perform hydro therapy, electrotherapy, massages and from the alternative medicine, acupuncture, the only thing that we don’t do in Ramadan is cupping therapy because they say that it breaks fasting.” –Dr Samy Abdelsamad.
Dr Samy also clarified that in china, efforts have been made to use alternative medical therapy to directly combat Covid-19, actions that are being implemented now in Egypt. These actions include using a piece of ceramic called the “Guasha” this stone is moved throughout the skin of the patient; it’s been shown to help the blood circulation of the body.
Another treatment that’s famous in China for treating the corona virus is the Twina massage, it’s a massage that helps the patients optimise their exercise, by undertaking this massage after an exercise session it helps in increasing ventilation and lung capacity, one of the primary targets of the coronavirus.
China itself hasn’t only been using treatments exclusive to itself. According to Dr. Samy, they’ve been attempting to use previous therapies that were used to combat Malaria, in particular hydrotherapy.
The possible negatives to Alternative Therapy
When asked about the dangers of alternative therapy, Dr abdelsamad replied by saying that medical therapies need to be conducted under certain criteria and limitations, by people with experience because otherwise complications may arise.
for example, ultraviolet rays are used by alternative therapist to cure multiple skin diseases. However, the continued and prolonged stay under ultraviolet rays has an opposite effect, as it causes skin cancer to develop in patients.
Dr. Samy Abdelsamad fears that the worst case scenario might happen again, previously he believed the worst case scenario happened in Helwan in which multiple water centres were shut down due to pollution.
Sulphuric and mineral water centres were forced to close. These can be used in treatment of kidney disease and of skin diseases, Dr samy believes that it was neglected by the government as well as the bad habits of people who lived in these areas.
However, Dr Samy is positive about the future of alternative therapy in Egypt, he believes that as soon as people see that alternative therapy can do the work of modern medicine but without the complications and side effects of medical drugs, it will lead to widespread recognition of these services in Egypt.
