With the announcement by the Egyptian Ministry of Health of the success of the plasma treatment experience for people living with HIV, a black market appeared to sell blood bags for those recovering from the virus, which angered the Egyptians, and prompted Al-Azhar to issue a fatwa prohibiting the blood trade, as officials and parliamentarians stressed to criminalize it legally.

Last Friday, Minister Hala Zayed announced the success of the experiment of injecting infected persons with the corona virus with the plasma of people who had recovered from the virus, in order to treat critical cases, as the experiments showed promising initial results through a good recovery rate for patients, while reducing the patients ’need for ventilator devices.

In a statement on the official page of the ministry, Zayed called on those who recovered from the Corona virus to donate at the nearest blood transfusion center affiliated to the national blood transfusion services, to withdraw a quantity of plasma from them.

In subsequent television statements, the minister stated that Egypt would begin within a few months a national campaign to donate plasma, noting that it is not possible to impose a donation of plasma recovering from the virus, as professional ethics require that the matter be optional.

In turn, the Ministry's media spokesman, Khaled Mujahid, explained that the plasma treatment experiment came with the announcement of the US Food and Drug Administration about the possibility of using plasma recoverers due to the fact that they contain antibodies to the virus, which gives the possibility to improve critical cases, especially with research evidence in many countries of the world.

Mujahid clarified that there are conditions for the beneficiaries to donate blood plasma, which is the presence of positive smear evidence for the emerging corona virus, and the withdrawal of two surveys showing negative results, and the passage of 14 days after the last negative smear with no other symptoms of the virus.

He pointed out that the recovered blood plasma could suffice to inject two seriously ill patients.

The total number that was registered in Egypt with the new Corona virus until Monday, 35,444 cases, including 9,375 cases that were cured and discharged from isolation and quarantine hospitals, and 1,271 deaths.

Blood trade
 But after the Ministry of Health announced plasma treatment, some took advantage of the matter to launch a trade to sell blood bags for the recovered, as social media pioneers talked about anonymous advertisements offering to sell one bag at about 20,000 pounds (a dollar is about 16 pounds).

The former dean of the Heart Institute, Jamal Shaaban, narrated a human tragedy suffered by a person suffering from corona after he had to buy the plasma of a recovered person for 20 thousand pounds.

In turn, the doctor, Mohamed Mamdouh, explained that plasma treatment is safe and its side effects are few, criticizing the exaggeration of considering it as a 100% effective treatment, which led to the spread of news about selling plasma bags in thousands of pounds, as well as the panic of some people and the desire of others to exploit the conditions.

Al-Azhar Fatwa
 With the spread of talk about trade in plasma of recovered people and the exaggeration of prices, Al-Azhar Fatwa Center issued a fatwa prohibiting the sale of plasma, stressing that selling the recovered blood plasma using the pandemic is forbidden in Islam.

The fatwa cited a noble hadith prohibiting the sale of blood, and made it clear that it is more than the sale of blood that it is forbidden for the recovering to trade in people's pain, to exaggerate the price of his blood, and to hold a secret or public auction for him, and to take advantage of the people's need, disease, and impoverishment. The softness of the heart, generosity, and thanksgiving of grace are qualities that are not appropriate in addition to being treated by yesterday's patient with today's patient.

Legal criminalization
 For his part, member of the Health Committee of the House of Representatives, Ayman Abu El-Ela, rejected the attempts of some to exploit the Corona crisis in selling plasma of the recovered to treat those infected with the virus.

"The trafficking is prohibited by law and criminalized by law," the deputy said in a statement today, Tuesday, commenting on the spread of the black market to sell plasma, explaining that the plasma is tissue and that it applies to members whose sale is criminalized in accordance with the text of the law.

He explained that the law regulating the transplantation of human organs says, "He shall be punished with life imprisonment and a fine of no less than one million pounds, and not more than two million pounds, whoever is transferred with the intention of transplantation or transplantation of the organ transplanted through fraud or coercion, and the same penalty is applied if the act occurred on a part of a human organ The penalty shall be aggravated imprisonment, and the penalty shall be death if the act referred to in the previous paragraph results in the death of the person transferred from or to him.

On the call of some to compel the recovered to donate the plasma, Abul-Ela affirmed that this contradicts the constitutional text: "The donation of tissues and organs is a gift of life, and every person has the right to donate the organs of his body during his life or after his death under approval or documented will."

He pointed out that the solution is in conducting blood donation campaigns from the recovered, in light of the current situation and the prevalence of the virus, as more than 3% of Egyptians have antibodies against Corona virus.

In turn, the director of national blood banks, Ihab Siraj, said, "Selling blood plasma is not possible, how will the buyer know that a person's blood is valid for obtaining them from the plasma?"

He added in television statements, "The analyzes of the plasma of the recovered people are accurate and not available to the public. They are only found in the Ministry of Health, and the thought of buying and selling blood plasma is very naive."

He cautioned against the existence of black plasma trade, pointing to the need for the beneficiaries to donate the plasma through legitimate methods through the services of the national blood transfusion banks, to ensure that the plasma is dispensed to the needy in a healthy and safe manner, provided that the plasma be dispatched to the first-degree relatives of the recipient immediately.

The communication sites witnessed great discontent about the trade in plasma and blood bags, and some pointed to the spread of anonymous advertisements about the sale of plasma.

Tweeters warned against the authorities ignoring that trade, demanding that it be stopped in its cradle, before it turned into a phenomenon that is difficult to control, and others demanded that the recipients be forced to donate for free.