Pope diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia
After undergoing a CT scan Feb. 18, Pope Francis was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia, the Vatican said.
“The follow-up chest CT scan which the Holy Father underwent this afternoon,” the Vatican bulletin said, “demonstrated the onset of bilateral pneumonia, which required additional drug therapy.”
“Laboratory tests, chest X-rays and the Holy Father’s clinical condition continue to present a complex picture,” the evening bulletin said.
Doctors had said the day before that tests revealed a “polymicrobial infection” of the 88-year-old pope’s respiratory system, meaning it is caused by a virus-bacteria combination. The infection, along with the “bronchiectasis and asthmatic bronchitis,” which the pope suffers from after years of respiratory problems and repeated bouts of bronchitis, “required the use of cortisone antibiotic therapy,” it said, which made “therapeutic treatment more complex.”