At the end there will be a debate moderated by Bishop Michael L. Fitzgerald, secretary of the pontifical council. The Health Ministry owes society a full explanation of this scandal. The Pernambuco state health department says the water that ran through the dialysis machines was contaminated with an algae that produced an unidentified strain of toxin that attacked patients' livers. One investigator, Sandra Azevedo, said the toxin was also found at the Caruaru water treatment center, creating panic among townspeople. People with malfunctioning kidneys must have their blood cleaned periodically.
Dialysis machines use water and a solution of salts and bicarbonate to filter a patient's blood.
The state health department said last week that the kidney institute failed to conduct quarterly water quality tests. A state health inspector had not visited the center in more than two years. The center has been shut and the federal government has ordered an audit of Brazil's more than 400 kidney dialysis clinics, which treat 23,000 patients. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control sent a three-person team to investigate the deaths, which a spokesman described as the worst known incident of dialysis contamination. The team returned home Friday.