The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) demanded that the
Egyptian Health Ministry start an immediate inquiry concerning the
importation of blood products that could be contaminated with
variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) from Britain in the 1990s.
Several Health Ministry officials denied the information published in a
Times story on 27 September 2004. The story mentioned Egypt as one of 11
countries which imported blood products from Britain, whose donors have
later developed vCJD.
The EIPR’s Health and Human Rights Program pursued the matter and
established that the British Bio Products Laboratory (BPL) has notified the
Egyptian Health Ministry in 2001 that imported blood products may have been
contaminated. The Ministry of Health has failed so far to act to verify this
information and to contain the possibility of spread of the disease in
Egypt.
The same list of 11 countries that was recently published in The
Times story, had been published in The Guardian on 5
February 2001 citing the BPL. The Guardian quoted a BPL spokesperson
who stated that the 11 countries – including Egypt – were notified of the
risk that the blood exported to them could have vCJD.
In a telephone conversation with the EIPR last week, Dr. Salwa Youssef,
Director of the Blood Banks Sector, the only authority that can import blood
and blood products, denied – again – this information. She also stressed
that Egypt has not imported blood since the 1980s and has not imported any
blood products from Britain.
However, this morning the EIPR received a reply from Ms Helen Janecek of the
CJD Incidents Panel at Health Protection Agency, which stated that in 2001
“the Health Minister in Egypt was notified by BPL that they had received
vCJD implicated plasma products,” although she stated that Egypt was not on
the list of five countries most at risk.
Meanwhile, Sam Lister, The Times reporter who wrote the story that
included the list of 11 countries which received the possibly contaminated
blood products, confirmed that Egypt is on the list. He also added in a
telephone conversation with the EIPR that the British Health Department
refuses to name the five countries which it considers at high risk of vCJD
due to the contaminated blood products, but it does not refute the list of
11 countries that had already imported these products, including Egypt.
The EIPR emphasized that Egypt has a legal obligation to take measures to
face the possible public health threat. Measures should include immediate
investigation into the incident, identification and monitoring of persons
who received the implicated blood products to guarantee that they do not
donate blood or organs to other individuals. The investigation should also
reveal the reasons why the Egyptian Health Ministry failed to take the
necessary measures to remedy the situation since it was notified in 2001.
“While our officials denied the whole incident as soon as they learnt about
it, health ministries in other countries mentioned in the same news story,
such as India and Turkey, started investigating immediately. They vowed to
follow-up on persons who have possibly contracted the disease or who could
pass the disease to others,” said Hossam Bahgat, Director of the Egyptian
Initiative for Personal Rights. “The least that the government can now do is
respect the right of Egyptians to be assured that their government is taking
the matter seriously as a potential public health crisis, rather that a
public relations one.”
