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POLITICS

‘Once again, I got away with it’: Italy’s Berlusconi leaves hospital after Covid treatment

Former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi left hospital on Monday 11 days after being admitted with coronavirus, an experience he described as perhaps "the most difficult" in his life.

Published: 14 September 2020 12:21 CEST
'Once again, I got away with it': Italy's Berlusconi leaves hospital after Covid treatment
The 83-year-old media tycoon, who tested positive for Covid-19 after returning from a holiday at his luxury villa in Sardinia, was admitted to the San Raffaele hospital in Milan on September 3rd with a lung infection.
 
 
“The first three days were extremely difficult,” he told journalists as he left the hospital.
 
Two of his children – daughter Barbara, 36, and son Luigi, 31 – also contracted the virus, as did his companion Marta Fascina.
 
“It was tough. Thank heavens, thanks to the doctors, I got over what was perhaps the most difficult ordeal of my life.”
 
“Once again, I seem to have got away with it!” he said, after walking slowly but without assistance to address the cameras.
 
 
Property and media magnate Berlusconi was Italian prime minister for his centre-right Forza Italia party on three occasions between
1994 and 2011.
 
Despite his regular brushes with the law and health problems – including open heart surgery in 2016 — the man known as “the immortal” for his
longevity in politics led the Italian right for more than two decades.
 
 
The scandal-hit billionaire had insisted this month that he would continue his political activities despite the positive virus test.
 
Regional elections are to be held in Italy this weekend, as well as a referendum on reducing the number of deputies in parliament.
 

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HEALTH

Italy reports first case of monkeypox

Italy on Thursday reported its first case of monkeypox, joining a number of other European and North American nations in detecting the disease endemic in parts of Africa.

Published: 19 May 2022 16:58 CEST
Italy reports first case of monkeypox

Monkeypox was identified in a young adult who had recently returned from the Canary Islands, Rome’s Spallanzani Institute for infectious diseases said.

He is being treated in isolation and is in a reasonable condition, it said in a statement carried by Italian news agencies, adding that two other suspected cases were being investigated.

Alessio D’Amato, health commissioner for the Lazio region that includes Rome, confirmed on social media that it was the country’s first case, adding that the situation was being “constantly monitored”.

Cases of monkeypox have also been detected in Spain and Portugal – where more than 40 possible and verified cases have been reported – as well as Britain, Sweden, the United States and Canada.

The illness has infected thousands of people in parts of Central and Western Africa in recent years, but is rare in Europe and North Africa.

Its symptoms are similar but somewhat milder than smallpox’s: fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, chills, exhaustion, although it also causes the lymph nodes to swell up.

Within one to three days, the patient develops a rash, often beginning on the face then spreading to other parts of the body. Although most monkeypox cases aren’t serious, studies have shown that one in ten people who contract the disease in Africa die from it.

The World Health Organization on Tuesday said it was coordinating with UK and European health officials over the new outbreaks.

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