Released on: January 24, 2008, 8:03 am

Press Release Author: Gerard Sunnen, MD

Industry: Government

Press Release Summary: Human rights are challenged by the demise of a medical study

Press Release Body: New York, January 28, 2008 - Human rights violations charges
were filed with the New York State Division of Human Rights against the New York
State Department of Health (NYSDOH). At issue are charges that the NYSDOH impeded -
and eventually blocked - the progress of clinical studies designed to find treatment
options for the hepatitis C pandemic currently afflicting the Egyptian population.

In Egypt, where a hepatitis C pandemic has been growing for decades, the prevalence
rate for hepatitis C is the highest in the world. Some studies show that up to 20%
of the Egyptian citizenry - now estimated at 70 million - has come in contact with
the virus. A vaccination program gone awry provides a partial explanation for this
massive infection rate.

The National Research Centre (NRC) in Cairo, Egypt, responding to this huge public
health crisis, contacted Medizone International, Inc., a U.S. company engaged in
developing complementary therapies for hepatitis C, seeking its immune activation
technology.

According to Gerard Sunnen, MD, former president and director of research for
Medizone, the NYSDOH stopped the study at a time when all contracts were signed and
study volunteers in Egypt had already been selected. ''The motives seem clear. The
NYSDOH strongly opposes complementary therapies. More importantly, however, is the
influence of special interests, potent economic forces fighting to keep the status
quo on established pharmaceutical pipelines. Conventional hepatitis C drug therapies
are prohibitively costly for such large target populations and are inordinately
prone to failure and to serious side effects. The Medizone process, by contrast, is
considerably less onerous," Dr. Sunnen said. "For a state agency like the NYSDOH to
actively interfere in the internal operations of a company engaged in an
international goodwill mission is as puzzling as it is outrightly destructive," he
added.

"Special interests and other agendas can all too easily kill innovative medical
research," Dr. Sunnen concluded, adding, "When that happens, the public interest
invariably suffers. In this case, the disenfranchised include not only the millions
of Egyptian patients, but also the some 170 million people who, according to World
Health Organization estimates, are afflicted with this serious disease."

The complaint was filed with the New York State Human Rights Division on behalf of
the Egyptian hepatitis patients wronged by the study's demise. "Patients have a
right to the fruits of research created to benefit them," Dr. Sunnen said, adding
that "by bringing down this study the NYSDOH transgressed fundamental human rights
and tampered with international goodwill."

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Gerard Sunnen, M.D.
Ozonics International, LLC
200 East 33 Street, Suite 26J
New York, NY 10016-4831 USA
Tel. 1-212-6790679 / Fax 1-212-6798008
Ozonicsint.com
GSunnen@aol.com



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Contact Details: Gerard Sunnen, MD
200 E. 33 Street, 26J