(Bloomberg) — Zambian President Edgar Lungu, who took office less than two months ago, will seek specialized medical treatment abroad for a rare disease that causes the food pipe to narrow.
Lungu, 58, was diagnosed with the condition by a team of doctors, who recommended immediate treatment, the State House press office said on Monday on its Facebook account. It said on Sunday that Lungu was being treated at a military hospital for malaria after falling ill at a public event in the capital, Lusaka. Agence France-Presse reported that Lungu collapsed on the podium after standing for 20 minutes during a ceremony celebrating Women’s Day.
Lungu won a closely contested election in January to succeed President Michael Sata, who died in office in October at the age of 77. Sata was absent from public life for almost three months before his death, with the government refusing to respond to speculation about his deteriorating health. He died in London, where he was undergoing medical treatment, becoming the second leader to die in office in six years.
Lungu is faced with a slowing economy amid falling prices of copper, which account for more than two-thirds of Zambia’s exports. Higher mining taxes and the president’s firing of the central bank governor have added to investor concerns, contributing to the kwacha’s 14 percent slump against the dollar in the past six months.
Medical History
“The sudden illness of yet another Zambian head of state – – coming as it does on the back of market uncertainties, mining debates and potential upheavals at the central bank while the currency slides — is bound to create jitters and cause some concern,” Gary van Staden, a political analyst at NKC Independent Economists, based in Paarl, near Cape Town, said in an e-mailed note to clients.
The State House, which posted a photo of Lungu at Maina Soko military hospital on Monday on Facebook, said the president has a history of achalasia, a condition that causes the lower muscles in the esophagus to fail to open to allow food to pass into the stomach. He was treated for the condition 30 years ago, it said.
