Época magazine touches on a taboo subject: Dilma's health.
The president's health condition is a cause for concern, says the magazine.
After gaining access to the medical records and medications used by President Dilma Rousseff, the magazine of the Globo Organizations reports that her condition still requires care and is more serious than a simple case of pneumonia.
Regarding the Palocci case, the magazine publishes an interview with the national president of the PSDB party, who demands information about the Minister of the Civil House's private client list, as well as the services he provided. Columnist Guilherme Fiúza offers his interpretation of the case, stating that "Palocci faltered in the motto that seems almost religious in the PT school: using the State for private fundraising."
Read an excerpt from the Época magazine article:
Last Sunday, the 22nd, President Dilma Rousseff traveled to Salvador to participate in the beatification ceremony of Sister Dulce. It was her first public engagement since the pneumonia that forced her to cancel trips and work from the Alvorada Palace, her official residence, for three weeks. In the capital of Bahia, the rain forced the event organizers to improvise. Dilma was accommodated under an awning that resembled a plastic bubble. It wasn't just a courtesy justified by her position. It was a necessary precaution to avoid a relapse of the lung inflammation which, according to her own words, as reported by a trusted source, was "the worst of all the illnesses I have ever faced."
The “pneumonia outbreak” described in the medical bulletin at the end of April proved to be more pernicious than the succinct official communication suggested. Dilma returned from China after ten days of grueling work. She already had the flu when she officially inaugurated the vaccination campaign against the disease, taking a dose herself. On Tuesday, April 26, she felt feverish. Her temperature was 36,8 degrees Celsius. The official physician of the Presidency, Colonel Cleber Ferreira, prescribed the antibiotic Levaquin, without informing the head of her medical team, Dr. Roberto Kalil, from the Sírio-Libanês Hospital in São Paulo. Dilma worsened. On Thursday, an X-ray revealed pneumonia. Transferred to São Paulo, she began receiving two antibiotics intravenously: azithromycin and ceftriaxone – resources used in severe cases. She continued this treatment for 14 days. She was also treated with a corticosteroid.
Close advisors say the illness affected the president's disposition and psychological state. She felt tired and short of breath. She began working from the Alvorada Palace, the official residence, to avoid the air conditioning in the Planalto Palace, where the windows are sealed. She complained of stomach pains and nausea and couldn't eat properly. Her liver showed signs of damage. Levels of the enzyme TGP, which serves as a parameter to assess liver conditions, rose as a result of the organ's effort to process the cocktail of medications Dilma was using. On May 21st, she underwent a chest CT scan which, according to doctors, showed that she was cured of pneumonia.
In recent days, ÉPOCA had access to medical reports, exams, and a list of medications she takes. During her pneumonia treatment, she was taking 28 medications daily – including allopathic drugs, vitamin supplements prescribed in orthomolecular treatments, and capsules that Dilma consumes on her own, some of which are unorthodox, such as shark cartilage (see the complete list below). Contacted by ÉPOCA, Dilma asked the Sírio-Libanês Hospital to issue an exclusive bulletin on her health condition. "From a medical point of view, at this moment the President is in excellent health," the bulletin states. According to the official doctors, there is no sign that her lymphatic cancer, diagnosed and treated in 2009, has returned, nor that her body's defenses have suffered any major consequences due to the treatment. "President Dilma remains in complete remission from lymphoma, and there is no evidence of immunological deficiencies, associated or not with the lymphoma treatment performed in 2009," the text says.
But information obtained by ÉPOCA reveals that the president's health still requires attention. Not because of the cancer, but due to concerns natural to a 63-year-old woman. Dilma lives with several problems that consume her energy.