"Medical Negligence is Premeditated Murder" According to New Egyptian Social Media Campaign

A digital campaign to end medical negligence in Egyptian prisons has been launched by a number of activists and human rights groups using the hashtag #الاهمال_الطبى_قتل_متعمد (medical negligence is premeditated murder), reports Al Masry Al Youm. 

The hashtag campaign was launched after the death of photographer Mohanad Eihab due to complications from leukaemia. His death is believed to have been a direct result of medical negligence in Egyptian prisons. 

Using the hashtag, social media users share forms to collect information about inmates facing medical negligence and recount cases of prisoners who lack access to medical attention. 

One such account is that of Mahienour El Massry who took to Facebook to share her experience as a political prisoner where she witnessed the bad conditions many sick and elderly women were living in where they were often denied medical treatment.  

She also recounts that a woman's newborn died because the guards were late in taking her to a delivery room. Another woman was beaten to death by a prison doctor because he thought she was "faking illness," according to the political activist. 

Doctors' Syndicate Rights Committee member Taher Mokhtar, who was arrested himself for calling for better medical conditions for Egyptian prisoners, told Aswast Masriya that inmates are treated as humans with no rights and that the issue is a "recurring phenomenon and not individual cases as presumed."