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Yeltsin hospitalized with pneumonia

January 8, 1997
Web posted at: 3:40 p.m. EST (2040 GMT)

MOSCOW (CNN) -- Russian President Boris Yeltsin was hospitalized Wednesday after being diagnosed with the "first signs of pneumonia," his official press service said.

Yeltsin, 65, was readmitted to the Central Clinical Hospital, also known as the Kremlin hospital in suburban Moscow, just two months after undergoing a heart bypass operation. He was taken to the hospital at about 9 p.m. local time.

A presidential press service spokesman said Yeltsin was diagnosed with his illness during a routine physical examination. The spokesman would not elaborate on the president's condition, except to say that Yeltsin was not running a fever.

Chief Kremlin doctor Sergei Mironov is supervising the medical team that is treating the president.

russia map

Dr. Michael DeBakey, who served as a consultant for Yeltsin's surgery last year, told CNN that the pneumonia is not related to the operation.

"I expect him to be all right, and I would say that in a matter of three days to a week you're going to see improvement and (he'll) probably leave the hospital," DeBakey said.

Yeltsin became ill with the flu Monday, only two weeks after returning to full-time work. He had been largely sidelined for six months due to heart problems, which included quintuple bypass surgery on November 5.

Yeltsin's heart surgeon, Dr. Renat Akchurin, had said earlier Wednesday that the president has a common cold and that his condition was no cause for alarm.

State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns, appearing on CNN's "TalkBack Live," said Americans should not overreact to the news of Yeltsin's pneumonia and that the Russian president had been carrying out his duties since the heart surgery.

Pneumonia is an inflammation of the lungs caused by bacteria or viruses and can be potentially life-threatening if not detected and treated early.

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