Zambian Officials: President 'Needs Treatment Abroad', Collapse Not Due To Malaria

The Patriotic Front's Edgar Lungu, right, is sworn in as president at an inauguration ceremony in Lusaka (Photo: AP)

Officials in Zambia said further tests have shown that malaria was not the cause the president's collapse during a public ceremony over the weekend. Zambia's President Edgar Lungu has to undergo throat surgery abroad, his doctors say, after earlier reporting that he had malaria.

Mr Lungu, elected in January, collapsed while giving a speech to commemorate International Women's Day in the capital, Lusaka on Sunday. 

BBC reports:

During the campaign, Mr Lungu's allies denied reports he was sick and offered to undergo a medical check-up.

The election was called because of the death of his predecessor Michael Sata.

Mr Lungu, 58, was treated at a local hospital and his office issued a report assuring Zambians that the president was "feeling better".

On Monday, a statement from the president's office said he was suffering from a narrowing of the oesophagus which needed "high-tech medical procedure which is currently unavailable in Zambia".

"There he has been referred for specialized treatment abroad," it said.

It said this was a recurrence of a condition for which he had been treated 30 years ago.

Mr Lungu, a former defence minister, is due to serve the remainder of Mr Sata's term, until elections in 2016.

While Mr Sata was president, the government was accused of covering up his ill-health. 

Meanwhile statement on Monday from the Zambian President Edgar Lungu's assistant, Amos Chanda, said medical tests ruled out a full malaria infection. Chanda said further tests had shown that the president's blood sugar levels had dropped significantly, which lead to his collapse. The statement said Lungu has a history of a condition that narrows his esophagus, or food pipe, which led to his low sugar levels.

President Lungu was just recently inaugurated as the Zambian president in January 2015 following a close-run snap election after the death of its former president, Sata. He was a former defence and justice minister in the Sata administration. Lungu went on to appoint the first female VP in the history of Zambia.