ROME (AP) — Pope Francis said Thursday he is suffering from acute, infectious bronchitis and that doctors have advised him to cancel a planned trip to Dubai this weekend to avoid rapid changes in temperature. .
“As you can see, I’m alive,” Francis quipped at the beginning of an audience with participants of a symposium on health care ethics.
It was one of nine audiences Francis had scheduled for Thursday, showing that he was still managing to carry a heavy workload despite his illness.
Francis, who will turn 87 in a few weeks and had part of a lung removed in his youth, came down with the flu last week and is taking antibiotics. On Tuesday the Vatican announced it was canceling its planned participation in the UN climate conference on doctors’ orders.
“The reason is it’s so hot out there, and you go from the heat to the air conditioning,” Francis told health care workers. “Thank God it was not pneumonia. “This is very acute, infectious bronchitis.”
Earlier the Vatican had said that Francis was suffering from inflammation of the lungs and flu. Francis had a previous case of acute bronchitis in the spring, when he was hospitalized for three days at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital so he could receive intravenous antibiotics.
Vatican No. 2, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said Thursday that the Holy See is still trying to figure out how it will be represented in Dubai, where the United Nations climate conference, or COP 28, is getting underway. Secretary of State Parolin recalled that he had represented the Vatican at previous UN climate conferences and could do the same in Dubai.
Francis is believed to have left Rome on Friday, spoke at the conference on Saturday, presided over the opening of a faith pavilion on the sidelines of the meeting on Sunday and then returned to Rome. Parolin said doctors have advised him not to travel “to avoid any deterioration (in his condition) and so that he can recover as quickly as possible.”
The Associated Press
Source: ca.finance.yahoo.com
