As my colleagues Kareem Fahim and Mayy El Sheikh reported, the Egyptian military made the unlikely announcement last week that after 22 years of secret research it had found a cure to not just one global public health scourge, but two: hepatitis C and H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. 
 
 The claim was made by an army doctor, Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Abdul Atti, at a news conference attended by the country’s military-appointed interim president, Adly Mansour, as well as the defense minister, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a popular figure who led the country’s July 2013 removal of the Islamist president. General Sisi is widely seen as a leading presidential contender. 
 
 General Abdul Atti said that he discovered the cures for HIV and hepatitis C after 22 years of research he conducted with the assistance of Egyptian military intelligence and that his methods were able to cure 100 percent of AIDS cases and more than 95 percent of hepatitis C cases. 
 
 “You will never find another patient suffering from the Hepatitis C virus after today, God willing,” said General Abdul Atti, according to subtitled video of the announcement that was uploaded on Tuesday to a YouTube account focused on Egyptian politics and current events. It has been viewed more than 30,000 times in two days. 
 
 General Abdul Atti’s claims to have found a cure coincided with a separate announcement that the military helped develop a device that can detect hepatitis C infection from across a room, without a blood test. According to video posted to YouTube of a segment about the device was shown on Egyptian state television, the machine resembled a staple gun with a radio antenna attached. 
 
 The announcement came in the midst of a monthslong crackdown on government critics, which began with followers of the deposed president Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood movement but soon spread to non-Islamists critical of the military and security forces. 
 
 Last month, prosecutors that announced they were investigating a popular television puppet for its ties to terrorism, and more than one animal in recent years has been accused of links to Israeli intelligence. 
 
 A cure for hepatitis C would be a cause for celebration in Egypt, which reportedly has the world’s highest prevalence of the virus. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 20 percent of Egyptian blood donors test positive for hepatitis C. The country’s H.I.V. infection rate is less than 1 percent, according to the Joint United Nations Program on H.I.V. and AIDS. 
 
 The global scientific community has unsuccessfully sought a cure for both diseases for decades, and independent experts were deeply skeptical that the Egyptian military — working in secret, and without having published any findings in a peer-reviewed scientific journal — could have simultaneously unlocked the cure to two deadly epidemics. 
 
 That skepticism was shared by Essam Heggy, a science adviser to President Mansour, who called the military’s claims “unrealistic,” “lacking clear scientific basis” and “an insult to Egypt” in an interview with an Egyptian newspaper, al-Watan, that was translated into English by the website Mada Masr. Mr. Heggy also sought to distance President Mansour and General Sisi, the military chief, from the announcement, saying: “They were both surprised with what was said without them being consulted. Their presence at the conference doesn’t mean their approval of it.” ||||| Story highlights Army official says the device cures the ailments in as little as 16 hours 
 
 Scathing criticism erupts shortly after the declaration 
 
 Scientists say the announcement will further damage the nation's image 
 
 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. 
 
 Scathing criticism erupted shortly after the announcement Sunday. 
 
 Medical researchers led the condemnation, expressing concerns that the announcement would further damage the nation's image. 
 
 "I want to be clear and explicit, what has been said and published about the invention of the armed forces hurts the image of scientists and science in Egypt," Essam Heggy, the scientific adviser to the President, told the private Al Watan newspaper Tuesday. 
 
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 He called the declaration a "scientific scandal" for the nation. 
 
 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. 
 
 She 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." 
 
 He paid tribute to the military chief and unofficial presidential hopeful, Field Marshal Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who attended the unveiling of the "miracle" device registered under the armed forces and approved by the country's Ministry of Health. 
 
 Egypt contains the highest prevalence of hepatitis C worldwide, with at least 10% of the population suffering from the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 
 
 Dr. Gamal Shiha, a leading liver specialist and member of a team evaluating a controversial device developed by Egypt's military for detecting hepatitis C without drawing blood from a patient, said the announcement shocked him and his colleagues. 
 
 "What has been said is not scientifically disciplined. There is nothing published, and there is nothing in medical conferences, and there is no single eminent professor around the project," Shiha told CNN. "Nothing scientifically relevant has been said." 
 
 After the military led the ouster of President Mohamed Morsy last year, a cult-like loyalty to the country's army and its chief, El-Sisi, triggered a new era of repression that has claimed hundreds of lives, suppressed organized opposition, and jailed journalists and activists, according to human rights groups. 
 
 Against a backdrop of fear, scientific justification appears secondary to some. 
 
 "The interim president should fire the scientific adviser, Essam Heggy, after his offensive comments to Egypt and the army," Mohammed Abu Hamed, an Egyptian politician and vice chairman of the Free Egyptians Party, tweeted Wednesday. 
 
 Pro-military journalists and media outlets urged Egyptians to rejoice after the army announced the invention will be available in June. 
 
 "Has the level of doubt reached such a high level on an international breakthrough? This will benefit all of humanity and solve a crisis that the medical community has not been able to fix for years. This is something we should celebrate," Maha Salim, a state media reporter, said on private network Tahrir TV. 
 
 The lack of skepticism inside the restive country will do little to shield it from a medical community demanding evidence and answers. 
 
 "Until we see the results of all phases of clinical research, we as academics cannot accept to hear this, " Shiha said. "The place of scientific facts is in published papers and journals, not in press conferences." ||||| In an unexpected development, Presidential Adviser for Scientific Affairs Dr. Essam Heggy called the military’s claims to have found a cure for HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C “unrealistic” and “lacking clear scientific basis,” privately owned newspaper Al-Watan reported. 
 
 In an official press conference on February 23, an Armed Forces officer declared that, “We have vanquished AIDS. We have vanquished Hepatitis C.” 
 
 Heggy noted the alleged discovery “has never been published in any prestigious scientific journals” and criticized the detection device the Armed Forces is touting. 
 
 The so-called cure uses electromagnetism to treat HIV and Hepatitis C and can allegedly diagnose both diseases from a distance. The invention includes both a diagnosis component called C-Fast, on which research began three years ago, as well as a treatment dubbed Complete Cure. 
 
 “In my opinion, a sensitive subject like this harms the state image and will have negative effects on scientific research,” Heggy told Al-Watan. “I wish they had been more careful when publishing such information [about the project].” 
 
 According to Heggy, neither the president, nor the defense minister was consulted regarding the details presented about the invention. 
 
 “They were both surprised with what was said without them being consulted. Their presence at the conference doesn’t mean their approval of it,” Heggy was reported as saying. 
 
 The doctor said he considers the so-called cure “an insult to Egypt both internally and abroad,” and is scheduled to meet interim President Adly Mansour and Defense Minister and Armed Forces chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi next week to discuss procedures for announcing future scientific research. ||||| 
 
 During a press conference held Sunday noon at the Defence Ministry’s engineering department, Egypt’s Armed Forces revealed details of its recently developed device that its inventors say can diagnose both the HIV and Hepatitis C viruses and provide a cure for them within 20 hours. 
 
 
 
 The detection can be done with 100 per cent accuracy in the case of HIV, and 98 per cent accuracy in the case of Hepatitis C. The device has no electronics. It is powered by the body’s static electricity. The device is non-invasion, requiring no blood sample be taken. 
 
 
 
 The engineering department received an official grant for its achievement, noting that a similarly successful device was developed to detect the H1N1 (swine flu) virus and was tested in army hospitals. 
 
 
 
 In a statement on Facebook, armed forces spokesperson Ahmed Mohamed Ali, said interim President Adli Mansour and Defence Minister Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi had been shown the device, which as he said can “eliminate C virus with a cost tens of times less than that its foreign likes, and it is successful 98 per cent.” 
 
 
 
 Following the announcement, Egypt’s ministries of health and defence formed a joint research team to prepare for the use of the new device, which will be available at military hospitals starting 30 June. During the Sunday press conference, head of the military engineering department, Major General Taher Abdallah, said the new device was invented by Major General Dr Ibrahim Abdel-Atti and based on 22 years of research. 
 
 
 
 The treatment has no side effects, Abdallah said, adding that the military would not export the treatment outside Egypt, but would seek international approval for it. 
 
 
 
 The detection device is called “C-Fast” and was developed from bomb detection equipment, refined to detect an electromagnetic pulse that the Hepatitis C and HIV viruses give off in the body. 
 
 
 
 Representative of the Health Ministry Nadia Ragab said the ministry tested and approved the treatment, and that its development shows that Egypt has scientists operating on the highest international level. 
 
 
 
 Sally Emara, supervisor of the research, said the results of the treatment are “outstanding” in tests. 
 
 
 
 “Devices such as these could save lives in areas such as Sub-Saharan Africa, where access to labs for drawing blood samples is limited,” she said. 
 
 
 
 Similar devices have been invented by bioengineers at Harvard as well as at the University of Illinois. The first requires a small saliva sample and scans for the genetic code of HIV. The latter requires a small prick of blood to read a sample and search for the virus. 
 
 
 
 Egypt has among the highest prevalence of Hepatitis C worldwide, estimated at 14.7 per cent of the population. 
 
 
 
 The military’s latest invention is based on programming the device to identify the DNA structures of the respective viruses. As soon as an afflicted patient gets close to the device, a sensor drives an indicator stating whether the virus is present. 
 
 
 
 Tests on the device have been conducted in Egypt since June 2011, in army hospitals, blood banks, other military facilities, and hospitals under the Health Ministry. 
 
 
 
 More than 1,000 patients have been accurately diagnosed, the device approved by the Ministry of Health after testing in Ain Shams University Hospital, Cairo University Hospital and the National Liver Institute with a success ratio of 94 per cent. 
 
 
 
 Other tests have been conducted on an international level, with Japan, India and Pakistan participating in trials starting 24 January 2005 until 5 February 2011. 
 
 
 
 More than 300 patients were tested with a success ratio of 100 per cent in diagnosing the presence of the Hepatitis C virus and a control ratio of 97 per cent in cases where there was no virus present. 
 
 
 
 Test results have been showcased at a number of scientific conferences, among them the Liver Disease Studies Conference in Japan in 2010, attended by doctors and researchers from 60 countries, along with other conferences in Thailand and Berlin in 2011. 
 
 
 
 The same theory that is used in the device to detect Hepatitis C has been applied to produce another device to detect the HIV virus. The approval of Scientific Research Ethics Committee and a license for use from the Health Ministry were issued to conduct clinical tests. A device to detect the H1N1 virus is in process. 
 
 
 
 Yet despite this positive lead-up to Sunday’s announcement, many Egyptians and some foreign press reacted with incredulity. Some focused on the lack of technical information given to support the claim that a device has been developed that “cures” these viruses once successfully detected. Others dismissed the claim out of hand. 
 
 
 
 The inventor and team researchers have given few details, claiming that the new devices need to be protected from powerful interests in the international pharmaceutical business that act like a “mafia” and would be threatened by the emergence of an inexpensive “cure” to these diseases. 
 
 
 
 Social networks were abuzz with jokes and laments, with a number believing that the bold claim will ultimately be proven baseless. Some appeared alarmed that the Armed Forces, seen as the main source of authority in the country ahead presidential and parliamentary elections this year, would stake its credibility on a claim to have cured diseases that have stumped medical researchers worldwide for decades. 
 
 
 
 Many jokes revolved around the words of inventor Abdel-Atti, who stated at the press conference Sunday: “I take the AIDS from the patient, and I feed it to the patient. I give it to him as a finger of kofta, and he feeds on it. I take the disease and give it to him as food, and this is the height of achievement.” 
 
 
 
 Others are hopeful, waiting for 30 June and ignoring naysayers. 
 
 
 
 What is certain is if indeed Egyptian scientists have found a way, unconventional or otherwise, to cure two of the most devastating viruses known, it would represent a giant step forward for sufferers of these viruses in Egypt and worldwide. 
 
 
 
 ||||| Independent experts were skeptical about the inventions and treatments. In recent days, as news of the discovery spread, it seemed easy to dismiss as the latest embarrassment imposed on Egyptians by their leadership, like the episode a few months ago, when the authorities opened an investigation into a puppet accused of aiding terrorists. 
 
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 There was fatigue at another round of absurdity. 
 
 “I was an analyst,” H. A. Hellyer, an Egypt expert with the Brookings Institution, wrote on Twitter. “And then I had to explain terrorist puppets, spy storks and AIDS cures in koftas,” he wrote, referring to part of the Army treatment that somehow involved ground meat. 
 
 This was potentially more damaging, though, to public health as well as the reputations of Egyptian scientists and doctors; Egypt reportedly has the highest prevalence of hepatitis C, which can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer. In the reactions to the announcement, there was anger at what some saw as political opportunism by the military — the video opened with heroic scenes of soldiers at war — as well as a familiar disregard. 
 
 This week, Egyptians had other reasons to feel ignored. On Monday, without warning or explanation, the prime minister announced that the government was resigning. 
 
 By Wednesday, a new prime minister had been named, leading a government that was beginning to look very much like the old one. As Egyptians were left to ponder the reasons for the change, one political party leader said the public was being treated like a child. 
 
 In the news conference, General Abdul Atti and other officials insisted that the research was sound, saying it had been reviewed by top academics. Clinical trials had yielded “spectacular results,” a health ministry official said, and plans were in place to start producing more devices. 
 
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 Some of the backlash came from unexpected quarters. Dr. Essam Heggy, a planetary scientist and an adviser to Egypt’s interim president, told a newspaper that it was a “scandal for Egypt” that “hurts the image of scientists and science” in the country. 
 
 “The real achievement is to realize our problems and resolve them together,” he wrote on Facebook, “not to invent illusionary solutions to real problems.” 
 
 Others complained that General Abdul Atti’s announcement, which praised the army, seemed connected to politics and the expected presidential candidacy of Egypt’s military chief, Field Marshal Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, who was sitting in the audience when the presentation was made. 
 
 Dr. Gamal el-Ebaidy, a prominent surgeon and hepatologist, said he doubted the reported discoveries and was concerned that they might have been announced for “the sake of the elections.” 
 
 “Medicine has nothing to do with politics,” he said.
– You, and pretty much every scientist in the world, may find this hard to believe, but a top Egyptian general says he has discovered a cure HIV and hepatitis C, along with a wand that can detect the latter virus from across a room. In a press conference on Sunday, Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Abdul Atti said that over 22 years he had personally researched a cure, eventually getting help from Egyptian military intelligence, the New York Times reports. "Defeating the virus is a very easy process, but God grants wisdom to whoever he wants," Atti said. "You will never find another patient suffering from the hepatitis C virus." The military, however, said it would not release the cures outside of Egypt. The military released a video showing patients being scanned with an antenna-like device called "C-Fast" that, according to the Cairo paper Al-Ahram, purportedly has no electronics and is "powered by the body's static electricity"; it was reportedly based on bomb-detecting equipment. If AIDS is detected, the patient's blood is purportedly pulled from the body, purified, and returned in a "Complete Cure" treatment, curing the patient in as little as 16 hours, according to CNN. The general likened the process to feeding the disease back to the patient in kofta. The announcement has been met with just a wee bit of skepticism. Egypt's top presidential science adviser told an Egyptian newspaper that the "cure" was "unrealistic" and "an insult to Egypt." Per the CDC, Egypt has the world's highest prevalence of hepatitis C: at least 10% of the population has it.