Two seemingly unrelated news items have caused a great deal of controversy on the Egyptian scene.

The first was the announcement by a medical committee to postpone clinical use of a new treatment for the viruses that cause Hepatitis C and HIV using a controversial device developed by Egypt’s Armed Forces Engineers Corps until after — and if — the device’s efficacy and safety is established, which could take at least a year.

The medical task force was commissioned by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, when he was still minister of defense, to evaluate the alleged miracle cure. While army supporters cheered the invention and hailed it as further proof of the army’s capacity to deal with any problems facing the country, activists, skeptics and many medical and pharmaceutical professionals ridiculed the alleged qualities of the device, nicknaming it "Abdel-Atti’s Kofta Device."

In a Feb. 24 televised address, Ibrahim Abdel-Atti, who is neither a doctor nor an engineer, claimed that the device uses electromagnetic waves that resonate with the frequency of the bonds holding the virus' components together to turn them into harmless proteins. "I take AIDS from the patient, and give him back a kofta skewer," he claimed. Kofta, as those familiar with Middle Eastern cuisine would know, is minced meat usually barbequed on skewers, quickly became the device's nickname.