"New details of Yushchenko's hospital admissions in Vienna raise disturbing questions: Was the candidate poisoned or infected with some biological agent and, if so, with what? What is his current state of health, in the middle of a high-stakes tussle for power that has pitted the West against Russia?
In September, Yushchenko immediately charged that he was poisoned, but that charge was lost among the heated political debates and demonstrations in the final weeks of the campaign, which culminated in the disputed election."
[Not that I'm suggesting anything...]
Yushchenko's illness: What the doctors say By Elisabeth Rosenthal International Herald Tribune Steven Lee Myers of The New York Times reported from Kiev.
Saturday, December 4, 2004 http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/12/03/news/sick.html
VIENNA When the once-strapping, telegenic man was wheeled in through the sliding glass doors of the plush Rudolfinerhaus Hospital in early September, he was suddenly and severely ill, conscious but groggy and complaining of terrible abdominal pain. Multiple blood tests were abnormal, doctors here say, his skin was covered with odd-looking lesions and his digestive tract was dotted with ulcers from top to bottom.
Europe's most illustrious doctors were stumped; the patient's many symptoms defied a unifying diagnosis. Eight days later, Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's opposition leader, checked out against doctors' advice, determined to return to the business of winning the November election in Ukraine.
But in just two weeks he was again at Rudolfinerhaus, crippled by a new and even more elusive problem: back pain so excruciating it took huge doses of morphine to control and almost necessitated that he be put on a ventilator. Once again, a week of testing found no medical explanation.
Yushchenko and his doctors agreed upon a risky plan: doctors threaded a small tube through the skin of his upper back, into his spinal canal, so that the patient could campaign, while receiving constant pain-killing medication.
And so it was that Yushchenko flew back to Kiev with a catheter lodged in his back, escorted by a team of Austria's most elite doctors. He campaigned with the tube in place for a week, attending several large rallies, according to his press secretary, Irina Gerashchenko.
"I went with him because I had serious security concerns and I wanted to make sure he was handled properly," said Dr. Michael Zimpfer, medical director at the Vienna hospital, who supervised the case. Indeed, the doctors had become increasingly suspicious that foul play, particularly an unusual poisoning, could be the cause of their patient's problems, a charge that Gerashchenko repeated.
In interviews this week, the Austrian doctors were quick to stress that scientifically they cannot say that the candidate was poisoned. Tests for common toxins have been negative. But the medical team was so concerned about the possible presence of an unconventional agent that they consulted biological and chemical weapons experts.
"A poisoning without the poison is like a murder without a gun," Zimpfer said. "But if someone said to me, 'Look what we found!' I wouldn't be at all surprised.
"In this case, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."
He continued: "As I've said to the family: If this is a poisoning, it's going to be very tricky and tough to discover. They are not going to use some regular household agent." [...]
Opponents dismissively suggested that the cause of Yushchenko's hospitalization was bad sushi or too much alcohol, although doctors here said there was no evidence of that. But some doctors point out that it is still conceivable that Yushchenko had the bad luck to develop a rare illness, difficult to diagnose, at the height of the campaign.
The issue of Yushchenko's medical state has persisted because of the obvious disfigurement and discoloration of his face, which is swollen and pocked with large bumps and cysts, and is a dusky, grayish color. The left eye is bloodshot and sometimes tears.
Last week a prominent British toxicologist, Dr. John Henry, suggested that Yushchenko's symptoms were consistent with dioxin poisoning, which causes a severe form of acne called chloracne. This condition occurs months to years after exposure, when the body seeks to eliminate residual chemical through the skin. But cases of dioxin poisoning are extremely rare. Scientists debate whether a huge one-time dose could be delivered as a poison.
Doctors at Rudolfinerhaus said they did not test Yushchenko for dioxin in part because his skin changes were much milder in September than they are now. Also, they said, the candidate refused a biopsy of his face because he did not want to campaign with stitches. But dioxin and related toxins are detectable in the body years after exposure. Gerashchenko said such tests had still not been performed. [..] More >> http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/12/03/news/sick.html