It is yet unclear whether blood bags supplied by the company of a parliamentarian were contaminated or not. Reem Leila investigates A controversy erupted over the holidays about contaminated blood bags at the Ministry of Health. This caused General Prosecutor Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud to ask parliament to suspend MP Hani Sorour's immunity to pave the way for his questioning. Sorour is implicated in a complaint by Sawsan Morsi, head of legal affairs at the Ministry of Health and Population (MOHP), alleging that Haydelena Medical Company (HMC) delivered tainted blood bags to the ministry. As CEO of HMC, Sorour would be held responsible for the delivery of 300 000 defective bags, valued at LE4 million, thus violating the terms of the contract between the company and the ministry. Parliament's legislative committee will convene today to discuss the removal of Sorour's immunity, and a final decision is expected by mid- month. According to the chairman of the People Assembly's legislative committee Amal Osman, "committee members are leaning towards suspending immunity so that Sorour can prove his innocence." The MP, who maintained his innocence to Al-Ahram Weekly, said that HMC delivered the blood bags to the ministry in March 2006. He insisted that the blood bags were in accordance with international standards, and was quick to dismiss claims of bags contaminated with viral molecules as "groundless". The blood in the tainted bags is believed to cause cancer and kidney failure. According to Sorour, MOHP claimed that some blood banks complained about the thickness of the needle and the short tube attached to the blood bag, which was uncomfortable for blood donors. Also, that bag labels were too small to write down the necessary data, while the bag size was larger than those imported from Singapore by only three centimetres. "All these flaws are not considered technical defects because they can be easily corrected," argued Sorour. "These blood bags are a new product, and naturally there is room for improvement." The CEO blamed HMC's scientists for not raising the awareness of doctors working in blood banks and hospitals about the new measurements, which comply with international standards. Minister of Health Hatem El-Gabaly formed an investigative committee whose members include Hamdy El-Sayed, chairman of parliament's health committee and head of the Doctors' Syndicate, and Saleh El-Shemy, head of the Shura Council's health committee, to examine the matter. El-Sayed believes that the supplier has not committed any crime: "The measurements of the supplier's blood bags are well known in many European countries such as Holland, but they are still unknown to the Egyptian market," El-Sayed explained. "Egyptian doctors, as well as blood donors, are not yet familiar with them. The whole issue is just a misunderstanding." Already, El-Gabaly said on television on Sunday, Sorour has been penalised for supplying blood bags with different specifications. The penalty includes paying for new blood bags from another supplier to cover the ministry's needs for four months, and paying a late fine with interest. Sorour told the Weekly he would pay all his dues, which would amount to almost LE1 million. During a news conference on Sunday, MOHP Spokesman Abdel-Rahman Shaheen affirmed that the blood available on the market was "100 per cent clean and safe". Shaheen said that since January 2006, the ministry did not register a single case of contaminated blood. He added that HMC blood bags were certified by the National Organisation for Drug Control and Research (NODCR), which applies international standards. The ministry official revealed that only 37,000 of the 300,000 blood bags were put on the market, and as soon as complaints started coming, the ministry put a moratorium on their distribution in July. "The flaws of the blood bags do not by any means affect either the blood quality nor its characteristics," asserted Shaheen. But he was not forthcoming, however, when questioned about why Morsi, the head of the ministry's legal division, has since been demoted to a minor department. "I cannot give any further explanations or details since the entire issue is under investigation," he said.
