Qatar downplays breast implant scare

Qatar's hospitals have not received any alert about breast implants made by French company Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) amid increasing global concerns that the products could rupture and leak cheap silicone into the body. "Qatari hospitals do not deal with the controversial French company," medical sources told local daily Al Arab on Monday. Officials from the Supreme Council of Health (SCH) told the newspaper that all pharmaceutical imports into the country were carefully controlled. The statements aimed at addressing possible concerns about something usually kept private, but that came out in the open after safety concerns have reached alarmingly high levels. In France where the scandal broke out, more than 1,000 ruptures pushed Health Minister Xavier Bertrand to offer to pay for 30,000 women around the country to have their breast implants removed. In Israel, around 1,000 Israeli women called a special health ministry hotline to seek advice about their breast implants. The ministry believes that 850 women in the country have PIP implants. The figure, according to local daily Haaretz, represents five per cent of the total number of women who have undergone implant procedures in Israel.