Dear Alfred,
Egypt is a very nice country *imo* - plenty to see, generally nice and funny
people apart from the occasional extremist who try to destabilise the
country ;-)
I and plenty of others actually got varying degrees of touristic stomach by
eating at Sheraton in Alexandria several years ago, so don't feel completely
safe by choosing expensive dining.
Granted it was a warm buffet which is always tricky, but tourist stomach is
often caused by the difference in the intestinal flora of your home and
destination country and not necessarily pathogenic bacteria.
That means that being raised in Malaysia unfortunately isn't a guarantee -
Middleeastern immigrants living in Denmark also get diarrea when they go on
holiday "back home".
No matter where you go - do *not* accept the medicine most guides/hotels
have available if your wife gets a diarrea that you feel needs treatment.
It is efficient but might contain herbs or broadspectered antibiotics that
might be teratogenic.
However impractical consult a qualified physician who can tell you excactly
what the medication contains and whether it could damage the baby.
Besides from an unpleasant but usually reasonably harmless tourist stomach
you should also consider the risk of Hepatitis A (food transmissible) - if
your wife hasn't already been vaccinated this is usually something you wait
with until after the birth.
Maybe the Hepatitis prevalence in Egypt isn't higher than where you live
now?
In any case your wife needs to consult her physician and possibly her
obstetrician about the need for vaccinations or any other preventive
medication (ie. antimalarial drugs) no matter where you choose to go.
In principle Egyptian physicians should speak or at least read some English
since they use English textbooks to a fairly large degree as far as I know.
Best regards
Cecilie Th. Jacobsen
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