VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis, who was admitted to hospital last week, is suffering from pneumonia in both lungs and the 88-year-old’s clinical situation remains “complex,” the Vatican said Tuesday.
Francis was admitted to the Gemelli hospital in Rome on Friday with bronchitis after suffering breathing difficulties and the Holy See has canceled his events until the end of the weekend.
“The laboratory tests, chest X-ray, and the Holy Father’s clinical condition continue to present a complex picture,” the Vatican said in a statement.
It said a “polymicrobial infection” which has come on top of “bronchiectasis and asthmatic bronchitis, and which required the use of cortisone antibiotic therapy, makes therapeutic treatment more complex.”
“The follow-up chest CT scan which the Holy Father underwent this afternoon... demonstrated the onset of bilateral pneumonia, which required additional drug therapy,” it said.
“Nevertheless, Pope Francis is in good spirits,” it added.
Francis spent his fifth day in hospital alternating rest with prayer and reading texts, the Vatican said.
“He gives thanks for the closeness he feels at this time and asks, with a grateful heart, that we continue to pray for him,” it added.
The head of the Catholic Church since 2013, Argentine Francis was admitted to hospital after struggling for several days to read his texts in public.
It is latest of a series of health issues for the Jesuit, who has undergone hernia and colon surgery since 2021 and uses a wheelchair due to pain in his knee.
Pope suffering from double pneumonia: Vatican
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Pope suffering from double pneumonia: Vatican
- Francis was admitted to the Gemelli hospital in Rome on Friday with bronchitis
- “The laboratory tests, chest X-ray, and the Holy Father’s clinical condition continue to present a complex picture,” the Vatican said
Russian and Egyptian commodities exchanges plan closer cooperation
- Russia has been pushing to establish the exchange as part of a broader plan to create new financial instruments
- “In general, all of this can be viewed both as bilateral Russia–Egypt relations,” said Artemyev
MOSCOW: Russia’s and Egypt’s leading commodity exchanges plan to cooperate more closely, with a view to setting up a potential new grain exchange within the wider BRICS group, the head of Russia’s SPIMEX exchange said late on Thursday.
Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, has been pushing to establish the exchange as part of a broader plan to create new financial instruments, detach its trade from the US dollar and help Moscow to combat Western sanctions.
“In general, all of this can be viewed both as bilateral Russia–Egypt relations and as the creation of a BRICS exchange,” Igor Artemyev, head of Russia’s SPIMEX exchange, told reporters after the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Egypt’s EMX.
Under the memorandum, the parties plan to simplify exchange-trading procedures and explore possibilities for mutual exchange access for brokers and companies of both countries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that BRICS countries, which are among the world’s largest producers of grains, legumes and oilseeds, could establish such an exchange, potentially expanding it to trade other major commodities.
The plan to create the exchange was approved by leaders of BRICS countries, which include Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and Egypt, among others.
