An Egyptian Medical Syndicate internal investigative committee recommended the initiation of disciplinary action against four physicians found to have participated in promoting a device that treats patients with hepatitis C and HIV, prior to the completion of recognized scientific efficacy tests. In a July 18 statement published on its official website, the syndicate stated that the physicians deliberately caused harm to millions of Egyptians who sought treatment with the device, which the syndicate characterized as “dubious.”
On Feb. 22, 2014, the spokesperson for the Egyptian army had announced on his Facebook page that the engineering authority of the armed forces had invented a device to diagnose and treat hepatitis C and HIV, with the patent for this device registered after receiving approval from the Egyptian Ministry of Health.
On that same day, the official Egyptian TV channel aired a public service announcement produced by the armed forces that theoretically explained the functioning of the virus detecting device and confirmed the invention of the virus-killing device dubbed the CCD, which it described as the scientific culmination of 10 years of research that was achieving great results during trials on patients infected with hepatitis C and HIV. The announcement included interviews with people who said that they were completely cured after receiving treatment at hospitals run by the armed forces.
The research team set June 30, 2014, as the date for treatments to begin at the armed forces' hospitals for millions of Egyptians infected with hepatitis C. But prior to that date, the engineering authority announced that further research would be conducted for an additional six months before treatments would start. Thus, talk about the device waned and the second deadline expired. In the meantime, Egypt announced the importation of a drug called Sovaldi, which would be given to the 7% of Egyptians who are infected with the hepatitis C virus, according to statements by Egypt’s Minister of Health Ahmed Emad El-Din Rady.
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