March 27, 2024

And another scandal in Bulgaria

The entire board of Sofia’s university hospital has been sacked
And, in Bulgaria, even more stem cell Götterdämmerung. The entire board of
Sofia’s university hospital has been sacked over a scandal involving fraudulent
stem cell treatment. This was followed by the resignation of the country’s
deputy health minister, Matey Mateev, whose 21-year-old son was also implicated.
According to Bulgaria’s largest newpaper, Trud, patients were told that
they would receive bone marrow transplants from a matched donor at US$3,000 per
procedure. Some patients were told that this treatment was their only hope of
being cured. In fact, they were given their own bone marrow, which was quite
useless as a therapy. Hospital doctors defended themselves by claiming that the
procedure was part of "stem cell research". Mr Mateev backs them up, saying that
they "are working on new approaches in medicine". ~ BMJ, Aug 15