Local, Int'nal Medical Community Mourn Dr. Rajaa Mansour Death

Gehan Aboella

Local and international medical community are mourning Dr. Rajaa Mansour, who was the pioneer of IVF medicine in Egypt and the Middle East, after a year-long struggle with leukemia. Dr. Mansour died in America, where she was being treated.

Dr. Mansour was the first Egyptian interested in introducing IVF technology to Egypt with her two colleagues, Dr. Mohamed Abu El-Ghar, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Kasr El-Ainy, Dr. Gamal Abu Al-Sorour, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Al-Azhar University. Dr. Mansour and her two partners played a role in establishing the first IVF center in Egypt and the Middle East.

Dr. Raja with Dr. Abu Al-Ghar and Dr. Abu Al-Sorour

The President of the Republic, Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, honored her last year after receiving the State Appreciation Award in recognition of her role and scientific research, which made Egypt an international scientific reputation in treating infertility through in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF).

Hiba Allah, the first IVF baby in Egypt:

The late doctor graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University in 1973 with a very good grade with honors. She worked in Kasr Al-Ainy for three years, after which she obtained a master's degree in Obstetrics and Gynecology; she passed the American Equivalency Exam, which is held for non-American doctors in 1980 from Kansas State. In 1985 she returned to Egypt to transfer this technology and establish the first specialized center for infertility treatment through IVF and embryo transfer. In February 2003, she obtained her PhD from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Maastricht University, in the Netherlands, in the field of subspecialty “Improving IVF outcomes”.

The Doctors Syndicate honors her

Also, she established the first IVF center in the Middle East in 2002 to record and publish the results at the level of all IVF centers in Egypt. Dr. Abu El-Ghar said: I got to know Dr. Mansour, may God have mercy on her, while a deputy in Al-Qasr Al-Ainy in the seventies. She sent me a letter from America that she wanted to return to establish the Egyptian Center for IVF.

Dr. Abu El-Ghar thanked the country for greeting her last year and expressed his condolences to the family of the Egyptian IVF Center, and her sons. Dr. Abu Al-Sorour added, "The character of Dr. Mansour was rich and multifaceted. She was not only passionate about science, but also art. "She was a great artist who held many exhibitions that were highly popular and she was one of the well-known personalities, also she participated in many charitable activities such as Establishing schools in Maadi."