Egyptian Army ridiculed over claims of miraculous cure for all major diseases

The claim, dismissed by experts and called “shocking to scientists” by the president’s science adviser, is a blow to the army’s carefully managed image as the saviour of the nation.

It also comes as military chief Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who toppled Mohammed Morsi in July after the Islamist leader ignored mass protests calling for him to step down, is expected to announce he will run for president.

Well-known writer Hamdi Rizk noted that video clips of the presentation had gone viral, with tweets and blogs saying the military had made a fool of itself.

Professor Massimo Pinzani, a liver specialist and director of the Institute for Liver and Digestive Health at University College London, said he attended a demonstration of the C-Fast device but “was not given convincing explanations about the technology”.

One of the devices looks like an antenna fixed to a plastic handle and appears suspiciously similar to the phony bomb detectors sold across the region by British conman Gary Bolton who was jailed last year.