MOSCOW (Reuters) – Closed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said on Monday he had a high temperature and a bad cough and that three of his 15 detainees in his Russian prison were being treated in hospital for tuberculosis.
Navalny, 44, a staunch critic of President Vladimir Putin, went on a hunger strike last week to protest what he said was the refusal of prison authorities to provide him with adequate medical care for acute pain. back and legs.
His allies said they would hold a continuous protest outside his prison on Tuesday, unless he was examined by a doctor of his choice and offered what they considered appropriate drugs.
The state media and some members of a prison monitoring group have accused him of falsifying his medical problems in order to keep himself in the public eye, which Navalny and his allies deny.
On Monday, Navalny said a third person in his ward had been taken to hospital with tuberculosis, a high temperature and cough, and joked darkly that catching the disease could give him relief from his other ailments.
“If I have tuberculosis, then maybe my back pain and numbness in my legs will drive me away. It would be beautiful, “he wrote on Instagram.
“I quote the official statistics of today’s temperature measurement:” Navalny AA, bad cough, temperature 38.1, “he wrote in an Instagram post, adding that he intends to continue his hunger strike.
A temperature above 38 degrees Celsius (100.58 degrees Fahrenheit) most often indicates a fever caused by an infection or disease.
Navalny’s lawyers visited him regularly in custody and helped him continue to post messages on social networks.
Authorities in the IK-2 Criminal Correctional Colony 100 km (60 miles) east of Moscow, where the opposition politician is being held, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on an outbreak of tuberculosis or Navalny’s temperature and cough.
They previously said that his condition was satisfactory and that he had been given all the necessary medical care.
Anastasiya Vasilyeva, a doctor and ally of Navalny, confirmed that the protest plans will take place on Tuesday.
Additional reporting by Vladmir Soldatkin and Polina Nikolskaya; Edited by Timothy Heritage