LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) – Zambia’s president needs to seek medical attention abroad, officials said Monday after the recently elected leader collapsed during a public ceremony over the weekend.
Lungu had been delivering a speech to commemorate International Women’s Day at Heroes Stadium in the capital Lusaka on Sunday when he collapsed. An aide managed to catch Lungu as he fell backward. While musicians came on stage to perform before a shocked crowd, the president was carried away, a local newspaper, The Post, reported.
At first officials said that Lungu, 58, collapsed because of malaria and exhaustion. But on Monday the president’s assistant Amos Chanda announced that the president fell because his blood sugar levels had dropped significantly.
The new president has a history of a condition that narrows his esophagus, or food pipe, which led to his low sugar levels. The condition, known as achalasia, was first treated 30 years ago and has recently recurred, Chanda said.
His doctors have now recommended that Lungu undergo “a high-tech medical procedure which is currently unavailable in Zambia,” Chanda said in a later statement Monday.