According to the designers, C-Fast – a device modeled on a bomb detector – will revolutionize the diagnosis of many diseases.
The device in the doctor’s hand is nothing like the instruments used by most rural hospitals on the Nile. First, its design is based on the construction of a bomb detector used by the Egyptian military. Second, the device looks like a car radio antenna. Third – and perhaps the strangest – according to the doctor, it can remotely detect liver disease in a patient sitting a few meters away, in seconds.
The antenna is a prototype of a device called C-Fast. If you believe the Egyptian constructors, C-Fast is a revolutionary method of detecting the hepatitis C virus (HCV) using bomb detection technology. The innovative invention is highly controversial – if its effectiveness is scientifically proven, our understanding and diagnostics of many diseases will probably change.
“We are facing changes in areas such as chemistry, biochemistry, physics and biophysics,” says Dr. Gamal Shiha, Egypt’s most famous specialist in liver disease and one of the inventors of the device. Shiha presented the capabilities of C-Fast at the Liver Disease Research Institute (ELRIAH) in the province of Ad-Dakahlijja in the north of Egypt.
The prototype, which Guardian has observed in various contexts, at first glance resembles a mechanical wand, although there is also a digital version. It seems that the device is leaning towards HCV sufferers, while in the presence of healthy people it remains motionless. Shiha claims that the wand vibrates in the presence of a magnetic field emitted by certain HCV strains.
Physicists question the scientific basis on which the scanner’s supposed operation is based. One Nobel laureate openly stated that the invention does not have sufficient scientific foundations.
Meanwhile, the constructors of the device ensure that its effectiveness was confirmed by tests on 1600 patients from all over the country. Moreover, not a single false-negative result was recorded. Respected specialists in liver diseases, who have seen the scanner in action with their own eyes, express themselves positively, though cautiously.
– There is no miracle. It works – argues prof. Massimo Pinzani, Head of the Department of Hepatology at the Institute for Research on the Liver and Diseases of the Digestive System at University College London. Pinzani, who recently witnessed the prototype in operation in Egypt, hopes to soon be able to test the device at the Royal Free Hospital in London. In his opinion, if the effectiveness of the scanner is confirmed by a scientific method, we can expect a revolution in medicine.
The project is of particular importance in Egypt, which has the highest proportion of HCV patients in the world. This serious liver disease is usually diagnosed with a complicated and expensive blood test. The procedure costs around £ 30 and takes several days for results.
The originator of the device is Brigadier Ahmed Amien, an engineer and bomb detection expert, who constructed the prototype in collaboration with a 60-person team of scientists from the Egyptian army’s engineering department.
A few years ago, Amien came to the conclusion that his specialty – bomb detection – might as well be applicable to non-invasive disease detection. He constructed a scanner to detect the presence of the swine flu virus, which was of great concern at the time. After the threat of swine flu was over, Amien decided to focus on HCV, a disease that affects 15 percent of the population. Egyptians. In rural areas, such as the Nile delta, where ELRIAH is located, up to 20 percent are infected with the virus. society.
Amien turned to Shiha of ELRIAH, a nonprofit non-state funded hospital that was established after it was revealed that the Hosni Mubarak regime did not take the risk of viral hepatitis seriously. The hospital opened in September 2010, four months before the 2011 Egyptian revolution.
At first, Shiha suspected the design to be fictional. “I told them I was not convinced,” remembers Shiha. – I warned that I am not able to scientifically defend this idea.
In the end, however, he agreed to carry out the tests, because the diagnostic methods at his disposal required time and huge financial outlays. “We’ve all been considering some new methods of diagnosing and treating this disease,” says Shiha. – We dreamed of some simple diagnostic test.
Today, two years later, Shiha is hoping that C-Fast will be a dream come true. The device was tested on 1600 patients in Egypt, India and Pakistan. Shiha claims that it has never failed – it allowed to detect all cases of infection, although in 2 percent. of patients incorrectly indicated the presence of HCV.
This means that the scanner will not eliminate the need for blood tests, but will allow doctors to limit themselves to laboratory testing only if the C-Fast test is positive. Amien has already spoken to Egyptian health ministry officials about the possibility of using the device nationwide in the next three years.
Hepatitis C spread in Egypt in the 60s and 70s when HCV-contaminated needles were frequently used as part of a national immunization program against schistosomiasis, a disease caused by parasites that live in water.
If the device is used globally, it will significantly accelerate the process of diagnosing a disease that may affect up to 170 million people worldwide. Due to the high cost of the tests used today, the overwhelming majority of HCV carriers are unaware of their infection. Shiha estimates that in Egypt about 60 percent. patients are not eligible for a free test, and 40 percent. cannot afford a paid examination.
– If it is possible to expand the scope of application of this device, we will face a revolution in medicine. Any problem will be easy to spot, Pinzani believes. In his opinion, the scanner could be useful in detecting the symptoms of certain types of cancer. – A regular clinician would be able to detect a tumor marker.
Amien admits that he is considering the possibility of using C-Fast to detect hepatitis B, syphilis and HIV.
Dr. Saeed Hamid, president of the Pakistan Society for the Study of Liver Disease, who has experimented with the device in Pakistan, says the scanner has proven to be very effective. – If approved, such a scanner will allow you to cheaply and quickly study large populations and groups of people.
Meanwhile, many scientists – including one Nobel laureate – question the scientific basis on which the scanner works. Two respected scientific journals refused to publish articles about the Egyptian invention.
The C-Fast scanner uses a phenomenon known as electromagnetic intercellular communication. Physicists have studied this theory before, but no one has proved it in practice. Most scientists are skeptical about it, adhering to the popular belief that cells communicate only through direct physical contact.
Meanwhile, in his 2009 study, French virologist Luc Montagnier, who won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of HIV, found that DNA molecules emit electromagnetic waves. The scientific world ridiculed his discovery, calling it “the pathology of science” and likening it to homeopathy.
In 2003, the Italian physicist Clarbruno Vedruccio built a handheld scanner for detecting the presence of cancer cells, working on a similar principle to the C-Fast. Since its effectiveness had not been scientifically proven, the device was withdrawn from the market in 2007.
– There is not enough XNUMX% evidence confirming the mechanisms of action [of the concept] – says prof. Michal Cifra, head of the bioelectrodynamics department at the Czech Academy of Sciences, one of the few physicists specializing in electromagnetic communication.
According to Cifra, the theory of electromagnetic intercellular communication is much more plausible than skeptics claim, although physics has yet to prove it. – Skeptics believe that this is a simple scam. I’m not so sure. I am on the side of the researchers who confirm that it works, but we don’t know why yet.
Shiha understands why scientists don’t want to trust Amien’s device. – As a reviewer, I would reject such an article myself. I’d like more evidence. It’s good that the researchers are so thorough. We have to be careful.