Egypt’s Ministry of Health acknowledged the reason behind doctor Dalia Mehrez’s death as meningitis virus rather than a car accident, in an official statement of Tuesday.
Earlier statements by the ministry about Mehrez’s death came under attack after they stated that she died due to an injury from a car accident that occurred five years ago.
The Suez Canal Hospital, a specialised hospital in Ismailia, report stated the cause of death was a meningitis infection. However, the ministry’s Tuesday report ruled out the possibility that her death was caused by another rare and far deadlier strain of meningitis.
Between 1,300 and 1,700 people are infected with meningitis in Egypt annually on average, and there are currently 1,422 infected with it in Egypt.
In response to earlier calls by the Doctors’ Syndicate to compensate Mehrez’s treatment expenses, the ministry accepted to recompense her family all expenses since she was admitted in the hospital.
However, one demand remains unaddressed, which is raising the infections compensation for doctors instead of only EGP 19.
Mehrez was going to take part in the national campaign of vaccines for families against German measles but then she was requested to join a mobile clinic in the Qantara Gharb area of Ismailia. Shortly afterwards, she displayed symptoms of nausea, rise in temperature, cognitive disorder, and cramps.
According to her husband, Mehrez received very limited treatment when he attempted to admit her in the Ismailia General Hospital.
