CAIRO: Health Ministry spokesperson Hossam Abdel Ghaffar announced that 26 Egyptians were diagnosed with Gaucher disease describing it as “incurable” with no medication registered in Egypt.
“The treatment of one Gaucher patient costs 4.6 million EGP ($587,318.8) yearly, which is above the maximum limit determined by the law for the ministry,” Abdel Ghaffar said in a phone call to Al-Kahira Al-Youm talk show Saturday.
Gaucher is a genetic disease in which fatty substances accumulate in cells and certain organs.
He added that the Health Ministry has submitted reports with the hospitals’ problems to the Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab.
In June, a group of Egyptian doctors created a Facebook page to show poor conditions at public hospitals days after Mahlab had visited the National Heart Institute where he expressed his “shock and surprise” at the hospital’s bad services
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Doctors then launched their online campaign titled “so if he comes, he won’t be surprised,” referring to Mahlab. Dozens of grim pictures of dirty state-run hospital beds, tools, and bathrooms have been posted.