Northern Africa This section includes general information about health hazards as reported by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The region includes Algeria, Egypt, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Morocco, and Tunisia. It is characterized by a generally fertile coastal area and a desert hinterland with oases that are often foci of infections. Arthropod-borne diseases are unlikely to be a major problem to the traveler, although dengue fever, filariasis (focally in the Nile Delta), leishmaniasis, malaria, relapsing fever, Rift Valley fever, sandfly fever, typhus, and West Nile fever do occur. Foodborne and waterborne diseases are endemic; the dysenteries and other diarrheal diseases are particularly common. Hepatitis A and E occur throughout the area. Typhoid fever is common in some areas. Schistosomiasis (bilharziasis) is prevalent in the Nile Delta area in Egypt and in the Nile valley; it occurs focally in other countries in the area. Alimentary helminthic infections, brucellosis, and giardiasis are common. Echinococcosis (hydatid disease) may occur. Sporadic cases of cholera occur. Other hazards include poliomyelitis (also a food-borne or water-borne disease), however, Egypt is the only country where confirmed cases of poliomyelitis were still reported in 1997. Trachoma, rabies, snakes, and scorpions are hazards in certain areas.