Pharaoh’s curse is the wry traveller’s term for the diarrhoea commonly suffered by visitors to Egypt, acquired through contaminated food or water. The culprits are the usual agents of traveller’s diarrhoea worldwide: enterotoxigenic E. coli above all, plus Salmonella, Campylobacter, norovirus, and parasites, contracted from unsafe water, ice, unpeeled fruit, salads washed in local water, and street food held at ambient temperatures. The name plays on the legendary curse of Tutankhamun’s tomb, but the affliction is resolutely modern and preventable. Prevention follows standard travel medicine: bottled or treated water, food served steaming hot, peeled fruit, and careful hand hygiene. Most cases resolve in days with fluids and oral rehydration salts; antibiotics are reserved for severe or bloody cases. The term reminds food safety professionals that the same pathogens behave identically worldwide, only the setting changes.