New Cairo's Ahl Masr Hospital hosts its second international burn-care conference, 'From Survival to a New Life'

Why the conference matters in numbers

The scale of burn injuries in Egypt is the backdrop to the whole meeting. Dr Mohamed Awad Tag El-Din, the President’s adviser for health and prevention, said about 250,000 burn injuries were recorded in Egypt last year, and argued that the challenge is not equipment alone: it also needs trained specialists, integrated services and more beds dedicated to burn treatment. Ahl Masr describes itself as the first hospital in Egypt, Africa and the Middle East devoted entirely to free burn treatment, and its founder, Dr Heba El-Sewedy, said the hospital had cared for more than 18,000 patients in 24 months, raising success rates in severe cases from 20% to 85%.

El-Sewedy also said the hospital had received accreditation from Egypt’s General Authority for Healthcare Accreditation and Regulation at 99%, alongside international accreditation, and had helped prepare Egypt’s first national guideline for dealing with burn injuries, working with the Health Ministry, the World Health Organization and the Egyptian Health Council.

What the three days cover

The programme mixes scientific sessions, research presentations and practical workshops, with the aim of sharing the latest developments in burn treatment and rehabilitation. Topics named in the coverage include intensive care, surgery, anaesthesia and infection control, as well as burn research, clinical trials, autologous epithelial cell grafting and rehabilitation. The wider themes go beyond the operating theatre: psychological recovery, pain management, therapeutic nutrition, rehabilitation, community reintegration and economic empowerment are all listed as part of a full recovery.

The audience is professional, not public: the conference is aimed at Ahl Masr’s own medical teams, doctors from other hospitals and medical institutions, and internship-year students, so that evidence-based protocols can be shared and doctors’ skills developed. The opening day, Sunday 1 November, was attended by Deputy Health Minister Dr Abla El-Alfy, speaking on behalf of Health Minister Dr Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Egyptian Drug Authority head Dr Ali El-Ghamrawy, and the World Health Organization’s representative in Egypt, Dr Sadhana Bhagwat.

From survival to a new life

The slogan, ‘From Survival to a New Life’, is the hospital’s statement of what it measures itself by. El-Sewedy put it directly: behind every burn injury is a person with a story, dreams and a life to reclaim with dignity, and success is not only saving a life but supporting recovery, self-confidence and reintegration into society. The hospital’s medical director, Professor Naeem Moemen, said the conference was a platform for the latest knowledge and scientific evidence, and for bringing global best practice to medical staff in Egypt and the region — through research, continuing medical education and multidisciplinary practical training, not through new techniques alone.

The hospital also used the occasion to point to its wider protection work: it has launched a ‘Safe Women Unit’ clinic, and is preparing a ‘Safe Child Unit’, as part of expanding care for the most vulnerable groups. No public visiting programme for the conference itself has been published in the coverage checked here, and no attendance, ticket or public schedule is stated in this article, because none has been verified: this is a professional medical conference at a working hospital, running until 3 November.