Bulgarian minister resigns after bone marrow transplant investigation

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 …