MONA SEIF

The family of imprisoned Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah says they were allowed to see him for the first time in nearly a month and that he is “very, very thin” after ending a hunger strike that prompted widespread concern for his health.

Family members say Egyptian prison authorities have intervened medically with imprisoned pro-democracy activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah, who this week escalated his hunger strike to refuse water.

It documented multiple cases of detainees who died after experiencing suspected virus symptoms without being tested or receiving adequate medical treatment. Tens of thousands of people in Egypt are crammed into what rights groups say are overcrowded and unsanitary prisons. The group reported that Egypts National Security Agency summoned, interrogated and punished inmates when news media began to crackle with reports of suspected virus cases in prisons. Even as the daily infection rate in the nation has declined this month, accounts of virus cases in prisons are mounting. In almost all cases, HRW said, prison authorities have done little to protect prisoners from infection beyond grouping suspected cases in the same cell.