CAIRO: Members of the People's Assembly called on the legislative committee to launch an investigation into the polluted blood bags scandal Thursday Jan. 11, and requested stripping the implicated MP Hani Surur, chairman of the accused Hidelina company, of immunity, said MP Hamdy Hassan. The legislative committee has received an official request from the public prosecutor to remove immunity from Hani Surur but the committee might find it sufficient to question Surur only, Hassan said. The scandal erupted earlier this week when Sohier El Sharkawi, employee at the ministry of health, found 200,000 contaminated bags used to package donated blood in the ministry s storage. The bags, she alleged, were infected with bacteria and fungi likely to cause cancer and hepatitis. El Sharkawi, told daily the Al-Masry Al-Youm that she had been threatened to stop to keep quiet, but still insists on providing all the needed documents to push forward the investigation. Dr Mohamed Zakzok, chairman of Al Abur (italics) medical insurance hospital in Kafr El Shiekh, said in a statement he addressed by fax to the medical insurance s medical supplies and pharmacies unit, that the latest medical supplies Hidelina company delivered to the hospital were not safe and could not be used. On the other hand, Hidelina has stated in a press conference on Wednesday Jan. 10, that the problem was the responsibility of the ministry of health and that their negligence and improper preservation system were to blame. Dr Abdel Rahman Shahid, from the ministry of health told The Daily Star Egypt that the position of the ministry is clear. The polluted blood bags were confiscated by the ministry on July 11, 2006 and had been present in the ministry s stock house since that time and have never been out to the public, Shahid said. Hidelina also stated, at the same conference, that some of the objections to the bags were on optional criteria not obligatory ones. Earlier Surur filed a libel case against the editors of Soot Al Omma, an opposition publication, after they accused him of abusing his power as an MP to sell medical tools that did not comply with international specifications to the ministry of health. The issue will be discussed at the People's Assembly on Saturday Jan. 13.
