Published 15 August 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1322
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1322

News

Bulgarian minister resigns after bone marrow transplant investigation

Jane Burgermeister

1 Vienna

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Bulgaria’s deputy health minister, Matey Mateev, has resigned after illegal bone marrow transplantations prompted the government to sack the entire board of Sofia’s university hospital. On Monday 11 August the minister had praised the board of the St Ivan Rilski Hospital in Sofia for supporting the controversial operations, which doctors at the hospital have described as stem cell research.

"I stand behind the doctors in the hospital, who are working on new approaches in medicine," he was quoted as saying in a 12 August article in the German newspaper Deutsches Ärzteblatt (www.aerzteblatt.de/v4/news/news.asp?id=33331).

The deputy minister’s resignation came amid mounting speculation that he might be fired for his purported links to the illegal operations. Mr Mateev’s 21 year old son, Atanas, is part owner of a medical laboratory that received funds from the hospital in connection with the transplantations, media reports say. But Mr Mateev has denied any wrongdoing . . . [Full text of this article]


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