"God, who plagued us with [hepatitis C], is capable of giving us a cure for the disease to relieve all people," Major General Taher Abdallah, head of the Armed Forces Engineering Department, told MBC Masr on Saturday evening.
Abdallah denied that the anouncement of the hepatitis C cure was propaganda for presidential hopeful and former Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. ً "It was God's destiny that both events coincided," Abdallah said, referring to the announcement of Sisi's presidential bid and the hepatitis C cure.
"Those who worked on this invention wanted to announce it 6 months ago, but I refused until I got the approval of the Ministry of Health," he added.
Egypt's military claimed in February that its engineers had made an "unprecedented" scientific breakthrough by developing a device that can detect AIDs and hepatitis C infections without the need to take blood samples.
The announcement of the device, however, seems to have spurred much confusion among officials, as many statements about the device have been conflicting. While some claim the device merely detects the HIV and Hep C viruses, others, such as Abdallah, claim it actually cures them.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
