Former Italy PM Berlusconi in intensive care with leukaemia, lung infection

Former Italian Prime Minister and leader of the Forza Italia party Silvio Berlusconi has been diagnosed with leukemia. CNN confirmed this on Thursday. In a statement, the San Raffaele hospital in Milan said the 86-year-old politician’s cancer was not serious and that he had been suffering from the disease “for some time”.
Berlusconi was admitted to hospital on Wednesday after experiencing some breathing problems, following a previous spell in hospital last week.
“PM Silvio Berlusconi is currently hospitalized in intensive care for treatment of a lung infection,” the hospital said in a statement, adding that doctors had also reached a leukemia diagnosis.
The statement added that a “therapeutic strategy exists” to treat Berlusconi.
The media tycoon and former PM has served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, most recently between 2008 and 2011, before being banned from politics for six years following a conviction for tax fraud.
Berlusconi returned to frontline politics in 2022, when he won a seat in the Senate of Italy, representing the northern municipality of Monza.
Berlusconi returned to active politics in 2022, when he was elected to represent the northern municipality of Monza in the Italian Senate.
His spokeswoman told CNN last week that he had been admitted to a separate hospital at the time for “routine check-ups”.
According to the press office of his Forza Italia party, in 2021 he was hospitalized for treatment of prolonged COVID-19 symptoms. He spent time in the hospital last year after contracting the coronavirus, CNN reported, and had several other health concerns, including heart surgery to replace an aortic valve in 2016.