Autism Causes and Challenges in Egypt

Aya Elsayed, Aliaa Abou Ahmed, and Fatma Elkhatib

CAIRO, April 5 - An Autism Awareness session was hosted by the Global Health Association at

the American University in Cairo via zoom last Monday explaining autism and the challenges

faced by autistic individuals and their families in Egypt.

Ghada Oraby is a doctorate degree-holder in Phoniatric Medicine from Ain Shams University

and was the lecturer for the session. 

Oraby started the lecture by explaining the definition of autism, and stressed on how sometimes

we can misjudge a person to be autistic based on one symptom of autism, when in reality a child

should meet the "Triad of Autism'' to be autistic. The triad impairments include impairment in

imagination, impairment in social communication and social relationships.

“It is a combination of genetic and environmental factors,” continued Oraby to explain the

causes of autism. She listed different levels of autistic children with different levels of skills. A

high functioning autistic child has a good tendency for communication and learning; Meanwhile,

a low cognitive autistic child lacks communications skills, which makes it harder for him to

learn. 

Upon being asked about the solutions offered in Egypt, Oraby said that there are some

governmental institutions like University hospitals, National Research Center and Institute of

Children at Ain Shams that offer help for low prices for those who have financial difficulties.
There are also other more specialized institutions such as  Egypt Institution For Autism and The

Egyptian Autistic Society that provide programs to help autsictic children.

 “The problem is we stop at some limit; we don’t have the abilities to teach those with autism

better skills that would help them after their adolescence age,” added Oraby.

Moving on to the society’s role towards autistic patients is acceptance and understanding that

sometimes they need special treatment to enhance their abilities. 

Engineer Mohamed Salem, one of the attendants, added his experience on the solutions available

for autistic patients “I have seen autistic people being treated in 20 minutes.” Salem witnessed

new treatment methods in Colorado University Institution, which includes using Infra-Low

Frequency Neurofeedback to listen to the patient’s brain waves and process them by the

computer, resulting in full or partial cure.

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