# Egyptian Army claims to cure AIDS with dialysis; what? Why? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 27, 2014, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/egyptian-army-claims-to-cure-aids-with-dialysis-what-why/682403 "2014-02-27T09:06:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/egyptian-army-claims-to-cure-aids-with-dialysis-what-why/682403/1 "2014-02-27T09:06:16Z")
[Story here;](http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/27/world/africa/egypt-aids-cure-claim/index.html?hpt=hp_t2) > [@](#): > > Egypt’s army claims it has invented a cure for AIDS and Hepatitis C, prompting an outcry from the medical community, which blasted the declaration as a “scientific scandal.” > > “I defeated AIDS with the grace of my God at the rate of 100% . And I defeated Hepatitis C,” said Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Abdel-Atti, head of the Cancer Treatment and Screening center… > > The so-called “Complete Cure Device” draws blood from a patient, breaks down the disease and returns the purified blood back to the body, according to Dr. Ihsan Hanfy Hussein, a member of Abdel-Atti’s research team. > > He said it cures the ailments in as little as 16 hours. > > “I will take the AIDS from the patient and I will nourish the patient on the AIDS treatment. I will give it to him like a skewer of Kofta to nourish him,” Abdel-Atti said, referring to a dish made of ground meat. > > “I will take it away from him as a disease and give it back to him in the form of a cure,” he said. “This is the greatest form of scientific breakthrough.” I think it’s safe to say that there’s no way their claims are legit; they’re suspiciously light on details, they haven’t published any data or experimental findings, and the medical community both in Egypt and worldwide (including the interim president’s top scientific advisor) are calling the claims baffling and embarrassing. The question is; _why are these people making these claims?_ The people involved seem to be leading members of the military’s medical establishment, and the army itself appears to be standing by their claims. Is there some context I’m missing here? Is the Egyptian military’s medical corps run by incompetents a la Lysenko? Is this just some sort of bluff to try to get popular support for the military over the civilian government? ---
**Author:** ![Batistuta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/58956e/32.png) [@Batistuta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batistuta)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/egyptian-army-claims-to-cure-aids-with-dialysis-what-why/682403/2 "2014-02-27T09:30:16Z")
Wait, the guy claims that he cures AIDS “with the grace of God”. Have modern scientists even tried that? Maybe they should give it a try. On a serious note, if you follow the official media in Cuba, you’ll find similar news all the time. “Cuban doctors found a cure for all forms of cancer”, “The West tries to cover the Cuban cure for AIDS”, and so on… The only way to understand it is to remember that these news are directed at local audiences. If you’re a street vendor in Port Said who knows little about AIDS other than it kills loads of people and has no known cure, then you might believe this. And say: “so an Egyptian is behind this? Good for us! And the Egyptian army is making this public? Good for them!”. The fact that this piece of news gets picked up (and mocked) by Western media does not mean that its intended audience was us. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/egyptian-army-claims-to-cure-aids-with-dialysis-what-why/682403/3 "2014-02-27T10:02:59Z")
> [@Batistuta](#): > > The only way to understand it is to remember that these news are directed at local audiences. If you’re a street vendor in Port Said who knows little about AIDS other than it kills loads of people and has no known cure, then you might believe this. And say: “so an Egyptian is behind this? Good for us! And the Egyptian army is making this public? Good for them!”. The fact that this piece of news gets picked up (and mocked) by Western media does not mean that its intended audience was us. Maybe not so public: [Egypt claims miracle cure for HIV and Hepatitis](http://www.thecommentator.com/article/4758/egypt_claims_miracle_cure_for_hiv_and_hepatitis) _Almost certainly a political miracle rather than a medical one, Egypt’s claim to have an instant cure for HIV and Hepatitis shows the lengths the coup leaders will go for legitimacy_ > [@](#): > > There’s even more. Major Dr. Ibrahim Abdel-Atti, leader of the machine-inventing team, stressed that Egypt will not export the machine to other countries so that it can be protected from international monopoly and the black market. He was quoted in the Al-Ahram newspaper as saying, “Marshal el-Sisi once said, ‘‘we lagged behind and we should jump rather than walk so that we can compete with others’’, and this is the first jump.” > > The strange thing is, the media stresses that the device can also treat swine flu or H1N1, a disease that has taken many Egyptian lives over the past few weeks. > > The media message is, of course, clear: We can depend only on Egypt’s armed forces; they’re the hope; they’re the people who can meet all our needs; they’re the men of impossible missions; they’re the best to lead Egypt in the coming years; they’re the best in the world; they’re big scholars and hard workers; they spare no effort to develop Egypt and improve the lives of its people. > > They worked for 22 years for a machine that can make Egyptians happy. In short, the leader of Egypt must be a military man (in particular, Marshal Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi). ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/egyptian-army-claims-to-cure-aids-with-dialysis-what-why/682403/4 "2014-02-27T10:48:07Z")
What this means, of course, is that now thousands Egyptians will take this “cure”, go off their meds (if they were taking any), spread their diseases, and die. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/egyptian-army-claims-to-cure-aids-with-dialysis-what-why/682403/5 "2014-02-27T11:56:28Z")
How much do you want to bet that this is like the “farewell intercourse law” from a few years back? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/egyptian-army-claims-to-cure-aids-with-dialysis-what-why/682403/6 "2014-02-27T12:23:14Z")
It’s no different than the stories of Kim Jong Il playing 18 holes in 36 strokes the first time he ever picked up a golf club. Everyone likes to brag, and people with nothing real to brag about just lie. And when they’re high-placed government officials in corrupt regimes, nobody near them calls them on it. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/egyptian-army-claims-to-cure-aids-with-dialysis-what-why/682403/7 "2014-02-27T12:25:53Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > How much do you want to bet that this is like the “farewell intercourse law” from a few years back? Let’s hope so. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/egyptian-army-claims-to-cure-aids-with-dialysis-what-why/682403/8 "2014-02-27T14:02:16Z")
Egypt has (according to CNN) the highest rate of Hepatitis C in the world, approaching 10% of the population. The thought of being able to “save” the lives of almost 10 million people from that disease alone would provide a huge distraction away from the myriad issues the military government isn’t dealing with now. Since dialysis was already been tried (and dismissed) as a potential cure for AIDS decades ago and given paucity of medical discoveries which have come from modern Egypt, it can be safe assumption to believe that failing any peer-reviewed testing, this is a cruel hoax and nothing more ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/egyptian-army-claims-to-cure-aids-with-dialysis-what-why/682403/9 "2014-02-27T14:14:38Z")
This development in Egypt reminds me of a disastrous instance of pseudoscience triumphing in South Africa, [involving the country’s former President](http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/dec/01/aids) (who kept life-saving antiretroviral drugs from reaching HIV+ patients and has been held responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths in his country). \*"President Thabo Mbeki, a man who remains an HIV denialist…recently told a biographer that he regrets withdrawing from publicly discussing his beliefs. He has compared Aids scientists to Nazi concentration camp doctors and portrayed black people who accepted orthodox Aids science as “self-repressed” victims of a slave mentality. Mbeki pursued his own investigations on Aids therapies, resulting in government endorsement of Virodene, a home grown South African drug. Medical treatment for Aids cost $1,200 a month\*, but Virodene cost $6, “medicine developed in Africa for Africa”. Virodene was in fact based on the industrial solvent dimethylformamide, which is toxic, potentially lethal, and with - bizarrely - no proof of efficacy against HIV. "\* Bad things happen when believers in dangerous quackery get into positions of political power. \*note that anti-retroviral drugs could have been provided free or cheaply in South Africa, but their availability was blocked by Mbeki. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/egyptian-army-claims-to-cure-aids-with-dialysis-what-why/682403/10 "2014-02-27T15:45:27Z")
> [@Batistuta](#): > > Wait, the guy claims that he cures AIDS “with the grace of God”. Have modern scientists even tried that? Maybe they should give it a try. “With the grace of God” is a translation of an Arabic expression which idiomatically means, roughly, “By Golly”. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/egyptian-army-claims-to-cure-aids-with-dialysis-what-why/682403/11 "2014-02-28T16:08:27Z")
I see the Egyptian army is as good at medicine as it is at warfare. Is there nothing it cannot do? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/egyptian-army-claims-to-cure-aids-with-dialysis-what-why/682403/12 "2014-02-28T16:22:25Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > I see the Egyptian army is as good at medicine as it is at warfare. Is there nothing it cannot do? 😉 Win?