ASUNCION – Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo has said his doctors have told him the chemotherapy he will undergo to treat his lymphatic cancer will not impede his ability to govern.
Mr Lugo, a former Roman Catholic bishop, last week was diagnosed as suffering non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer that originates in the lymphatic system, the disease-fighting network spread throughout the body.
Speculation had arisen in Paraguay about whether Mr Lugo would be able to continue leading the soy-exporting country, which has a long history of political instability.
“I have consulted the doctors repeatedly about how much chemotherapy I will need in the next few months, and how that might affect my mandate, and they all said that I could proceed as normal and that is a relief,” the president said yesterday in his first written statement since being diagnosed with the cancer.
Mr Lugo (59) has been in Brazil since Tuesday for further medical tests and was due to undergo his first chemotherapy session yesterday.
Mr Lugo’s doctors had initially said that all the chemotherapy sessions would be carried out in Paraguay and, according to one aide, on weekends. – (Reuters)