Major General Ibrahim Abdel Aaty, the doctor heading the team that invented the device, which supposedly cures patients of AIDS and Hepatitis C virus, said he was offered US$2 billion to sell it abroad but he refused.
In a TV interview on the privately-owned Sada al-Balad satellite channel on Monday, that he was then offered the money to ‘forget’ about the device. “I told them to note that it was invented by an a Muslim Egyptian Arab scientist, but I was told to take the check and the device will be taken to any country. I said okay and then escaped back to my country. The intelligence service protected me,” he said.
The added conspiracy theory is another twist to an already improbable story about the far-fetched device. The device, The Guardian reports, is a radio antenna attached to a handle, that the inventors claim can detect radio frequencies emitted by diseased cells.
Though the device had not gone through the proper scientific channels before its release, Military Spokesperson Ahmed Mohamed Ali lauded the device's unlikely feats on Sunday, giving credit to the Egyptian military institution.
Ali said it was the first curing device in the world that detects the Hepatitis C and HIV viruses at costs 10 times less than Western medicine and it’s success rate exceeded 90 percent. Convential lab methods for detecting Hepatitis C via blood sample produce false positives about 15 percent of the time.
The announcement of the device 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 claim it actually cures them.
Though many are wary of criticizing the armed forces, some have come forth calling for reason. Presidential Scientific Adviser Essam Heggy said the the device should be at least reviewed by scientific committees and the results should be communicated with research institutions across the globe to verify the accuracy of the claims. At this time, however, no blind tests or information has been released on the device.
