At the end of last month, the Egyptian armed forces announced the “latest Egyptian scientific and research breakthrough for the sake of humanity.” They unveiled two devices, in fact. One (which resembles a staple gun with an antenna attached to it) they said can detect Hepatitis C and AIDS in patients, at a distance of up to 500 meters -- the rod jerks in the direction of an infected person. The other device can purify a patient’s blood of the diseases. The technology for both has something to do with electromagnetic waves. Scientists and journalists immediately called into question the science on which these devices are based. 

Egypt has quite low rates of AIDS but the highest incidence of Hepatitis C in the world (due to a botched bilharzia inoculation campaign in the 1980s, in which needles were not properly sterilized). The disease affects an estimated 15% of the population. There are hundreds of thousands of new cases every year. 

At the event announcing the invention -- with Minister of Defense General Abdel Fattah El Sisi and interim prime minister Adly Mansour sitting in the front row -- an army officer announced the country had “vanquished” the diseases and promised the new cure would be available in military hospitals starting June 30. In a 14-minute documentary broadcast on state TV, a doctor tells a patient: “You had AIDS, but now it’s gone.” 

The video that aired on State TV

General Ibrahim Abdel Atti , the seeming inventor of the devices (although when, where and how they were developed remains murky) has turned out to be quite a character. He said he had been offered $2 billion to sell his treatment but declined when the buyers refused to specify that it was the work of “an Arab Muslim scientist;” he also said he had been kidnapped by the Egyptian intelligence services (he seemed to take this as a compliment). He acquired instant fame by explaining the way his device supposedly cleans the blood of the patient of disease and turns it into nutrients, by saying it is as if  “I take AIDS from the patient, and give him back a kofta (ground meat) skewer.” 

General Kofta

The incident has been labelled Kofta-Gate on the Egyptian web. Egyptian newspapers have dug into Abdel Atti’s past. His military title turns out to be a recent honorific. His speciality is in alternative medicine. Two clinics he ran were closed by the authorities; several of his past patients have accused him of chicanery; and he has been prosecuted for impersonating a doctor. This has not prevented many from rushing to his defense, saying doubts cast on his work are part of a conspiracy by Western pharmaceutical companies. (The army has said it will not share its secret cure with the West). 

One of the president’s science advisors, Essam Haggy -- a young Egyptian currently working at NASA -- has called the announcement a scandal. 

The army has not responded to the skepticism surrounding its invention or to the allegations against Abdel Atti -- let alone to the question of how someone with his background could have ended up in a senior scientific positions in the army.

The announcement, which was clearly intended to reflect positively on the army and on General El Sisi (who is still predicted to announce his presidential run any day now) has had the opposite effect, making the institution look delusional and inept. It is truly terrifying to think that this is the level of scientific knowledge, critical thinking and political judgment in those running the country. Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef has promised to bring the issue up on every segment of his satirical news show until there is an official response that proves the authorities aren't the ones "kidding around."

Egyptian commentators have drawn parallels between Kofta-Gate and the fanciful announcements, back in the 1960s, that Egypt had built the first Arab-made airplane and developed missiles that could reach the moon. Others have noted that Egypt joins a long list of African countries whose leaders have at one point or another -- often with devastating effect on public health-- claimed to have a “cure” for AIDS. 

From a Muslim Brotherhood Facebook Page, an image from a recent protest. Will the authorities outlaw meat skewers now? 

On the latest impossible-to-satirize news story in Egypt: The claims by a an army general that the military's research program has invented devices that detect (at a distance of 500 meters) and cure Hepatitis C and AIDS. 

The story has unravelled amid a welter of protest from independent scientists and medical professionals that neither invention has been publicly tested, published, patented or peer-reviewed. A top scientific adviser to Egypt’s president declared the claims to be a “scandal” and a potential embarrassment to the Egyptian military. Investigations by local reporters appear to show that Mr Abdel Atti received his general’s rank not through military service, but as an honorary title. As recently as last year he appeared as a faith healer on religious satellite channels and had previously made an income as a private consultant in herbal medicine. An article in a Saudi newspaper in 2009 mentions him in connection with charges of sorcery.

Predictably, given Egypt’s highly polarised and envenomed political atmosphere, the affair generated controversy on Egyptian social media. Much commentary took the form of ridicule, particularly of Mr Abdel Atti bragging that he could now feed someone "AIDS kebab" and then cure the patient in a snap. Alluding to the reputed use of torture by Egyptian security services, one Twitter message parodied an army scientist reporting to his commander: “Yessir, we’ve tested the device. Straight away every patient confesses to feeling better!”

Others leapt to the army's defence. Anyone who made fun of the invention should be denied the miracle cure, insisted one television announcer. On Facebook, another defender demanded that the president’s doubting scientific adviser should resign. All critics of the invention were, he said, complicit in a giant plot by multinational corporations and Zionists whose fiendish aim was to maintain a Western monopoly of medical know-how.