Transparently, Sergipe discloses Déda's health information.

Sergipe 247 – Governor Marcelo Déda, hospitalized at the Sírio-Libanês Hospital since Monday (27), was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on Saturday afternoon (1st) due to a fever. As he has low immunity, due to treatment for stomach cancer, which has caused some difficulty in eating, Déda was taken to the ICU as a precaution. At night, the fever subsided. According to the hospital's bulletin, he "is conscious, oriented and breathing without the aid of machines".

The dissemination of official information, both by the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital and the State Secretariat of Communication, proves to be extremely appropriate. This helps to contain rumors and avoid hasty information spreading on social media and through news outlets. The Deputy Secretary of Communication, José Sales Neto, stated via Twitter that the Government is being "as transparent as possible." The Secretariat of Communication also made available to the press a journalist in São Paulo to provide information. This is Itamar Garcez, who works for the Government covering activities of interest to the State in Brasília.

On Monday, when the governor was sent to São Paulo, as part of a previously scheduled treatment, false news spread that the trip had been rushed. On Tuesday (28), TV Sergipe (an affiliate of Rede Globo) broadcast a report, with reporter Maria Julia Coutinho, live from the hospital, which revealed a new piece of information: the governor also had pancreatic cancer. She also reported that Déda had undergone a chemotherapy session. Through his blog, journalist Ricardo Marques, editor of the news program, confirmed the news.

Since there was no statement from the Government about the matter, a kind of confirmation of what was broadcast on TV was created, which led Déda himself to exhaust the rumor. On Twitter, on Wednesday (29), he denied having undergone the chemotherapy session. He said he was fine. And he informed that the tumor in his stomach had decreased, according to an endoscopy carried out this week. He should stay in São Paulo for fifteen days, as he announced in advance.

HISTORIC

After feeling unwell at the end of September last year, Déda underwent tests that confirmed, on October 1st, a gastrointestinal neoplasm. That's when he began chemotherapy. After taking a short leave of absence from the government, Déda resumed his duties, as he felt it was possible to reconcile treatment with work. Since then, the tumor has first stabilized, and then undergone successive reductions – the most recent in the last week.

Engaged in the lengthy discussion surrounding the R$ 567 million loan for the State, the Proinveste program, Déda decided to step down from the administration only after approving the project, which occurred on May 17th. It was then that he announced he would be leaving the Government for a period of fifteen days, which took place last Monday.

In 2009, the governor underwent surgery to remove a benign nodule in his pancreas. He was away from work for one hundred days, during which time he underwent treatment and recovery. He definitively resumed his governorship in January 2010, the same year he was re-elected governor. 

Photo: Marcos Rodrigues/ASN