Briefs

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Twins separated

A TEAM of 70 medical personnel led by Saudi Arabia's minister of health separated conjoined Egyptian twins on Saturday at a Riyadh hospital. "Nine-month-old Hassan and Mahmoud, who were born joined at the abdomen, were separated after nine hours of surgery," stated Saud Al-Jadaan, one of the team's doctors at King Abdel-Aziz Medical City.

The two were in separate rooms in the hospital's paediatric intensive care unit as doctors worked to reconstruct the body parts the twins had shared, including bowel, urinary tract and sexual organs. This was being done to give the boys as much natural organ function as possible, Al-Jadaan said. "What we do now will affect their quality of life in the future," he added.

The operating team was led by the country's newly named Minister of Health Abdullah Al-Rabia, famed for his operations to separate conjoined twins. The operation was originally expected to take 15 hours but went quicker than planned, hospital spokesman Sami Al-Shalan said.

"We are three hours ahead of time," he said, attributing that to the operating team's experience. It was the 21st successful operation to separate conjoined twins at the facility. If there are no complications, the twins will stay in the hospital for another two months to recover before returning to Egypt with their parents, Al-Jadaan said.

Stop TB

THE WORLD Health Organisation and ministries of health in the Eastern Mediterranean region will hold the "Million Youth March to Stop TB". The march aims to mobilise a number of people equivalent to the number of patients in each of the 22 countries that belong to the region to stop and eliminate tuberculosis. In Egypt where TB prevalence is estimated at 20,000 and in Pakistan where it is estimated at approximately 500,000, an equal number of students, young professionals and children are to rally behind the "Stop TB flag" on the same day.

In Egypt, the march will be held on 13 March at Salaheddin Citadel. In all other 29 governorates, other gatherings and activities will be organised in educational institutions such as schools, colleges and universities.

The National TB Programme will take the lead and communicate with ministries of education, student unions, youth associations, local security departments, NGOs and other stakeholders to participate in the event.

Tuberculosis is a preventable and curable disease. However, it continues to affect millions of lives in the world and the region. According to recent estimates conducted by WHO, roughly one million people are suffering from TB in the Eastern Mediterranean region alone.

Professors strike

UNIVERSITY professors and members of university research centres are warning of "unprecedented measures" if the government does not respond to their demands of a wage increase. University professors complain that the second round of bonuses owed to them have been delayed, while members of university research centres complain they have received no bonuses at all. They will also be renewing demands to cancel decrees issued by Minister of Finance Youssef Boutros Ghali that link bonuses to their performance. The decree also stipulates that such bonuses should be funded by universities and not the government, which professors say is unrealistic.

If their demands are ignored, professors warn they will not give exams or enter the examination control rooms altogether. Professors from public universities all over Egypt met at the Egyptian University Club, a group which represents professors' interests in the absence of a union. They have consistently rejected pay increases in the form of allowances and incentive payments.

Following the meeting of the club on Saturday, Maghawri Diab, university professor and official spokesman for the club, said they had received an official statement from the Ministry of Finance saying that "every university should come up with bonuses from its resources." "This basically cancels bonuses because no university can ever afford to pay from its own resources," said Diab, adding that the club will meet extensively throughout the next two weeks until the professors receive a response from the prime minister.

Currently university professors will only receive their bonuses if they fill out forms proving that they have done extra work, a minimum of 28 hours per week. The bonus is usually around LE1,200 to LE2,000. "These performance-related bonuses are all imaginary. What people do is simply fill out the forms and write in assignments and projects they've never really worked on so that they get their bonuses," said Laila Sweif, professor at Cairo University. "What we want is an increase in our basic salaries which have been fixed for at least 10 years now. We can no longer cope with the continuous inflation in the country," said Sweif.

Starting salaries for assistant university professors are currently just under LE500 per month. A senior university professor makes an average of LE3,000.

TV protest

EMPLOYEES at TV channels one and two protested this week in front of the Egyptian Television and Radio Union (ERTU) building against being sidelined in the channel's development plans. Employees, including programme presenters, directors, writers and photographers, called on President Hosni Mubarak to support them. They are objecting to the cancellation of their shows and the outsourcing of workers from outside the ERTU. On Tuesday, Minister of Information Anas El-Fiqi promised employees their inclusion in the decision process and as a consequence the protest was terminated.

At Maspero, in downtown Cairo, protesters blamed what one said was the "corrupt leadership" of ERTU for their current predicament, accusing management of promoting the development and reprogramming strategies for personal gain. They also asked for support from their fellow workers in the media. Activist and Channel One presenter Gamila Ismail, wife of opposition leader Ayman Nour who was recently released from prison, attended the protest even though she had not appeared on screen for four years since Nour was jailed.

The protesters demanded the reinstatement of their programmes and to be offered training and equipment that will keep them up-to-date and in line with the planned developments. Employees of channels three, four and five joined the protest to support their co-workers, fearing that they will be next.

During Sunday's protest, Suzanne Hassan, head of the television sector at the ERTU, delegated her deputy to negotiate with the protesters who refused to speak to him, saying they don't believe in promises. They demanded official decrees to be signed by Minister of Information Anas El-Fiqi. Recent developments on channels one and two include new programming produced by private media production companies.

Bird flu victim 56

TWO-year-old Youssef Abdel-Azim has contracted the bird flu virus and is in critical condition, Ministry of Health and Population announced on Sunday. The boy becomes the 56th case in Egypt. Assistant to Health Minister Nasr El-Sayed said the boy, from the governorate of Fayoum in central Egypt, showed symptoms on Wednesday after contacting with dead birds. He was administered the anti-viral drug Tamiflu and remains in critical condition on an artificial ventilator at a hospital in Cairo, El-Sayed said.

Egypt is the only country affected by bird flu that does not offer compensation to farmers when poultry is destroyed, which many experts say is the best way to ensure rapid detection of new outbreaks. Some five million Egyptian households depend on poultry as a main source of food and income. Since 2003, the H5N1 avian influenza virus has infected 408 people in 15 countries and killed 254 of them. It has killed or forced the culling of more than 300 million birds after spreading to 61 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

Compiled by Reem Leila