Thai king, 86, back in hospital with fever and suspected blood infection

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Thai king, 86, back in hospital with fever and suspected blood infection

Special treatment ordered for long-reigning monarch Bhumibol Adulyadej, 86, who may have a blood infection, royal household says

PUBLISHED : Sunday, 05 October, 2014, 5:51am
UPDATED : Sunday, 05 October, 2014, 5:51am

Agencies in Bangkok

Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej was readmitted to a Bangkok hospital on Friday evening.

Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-reigning monarch, was in hospital last night suffering from a high fever and suspected blood infection.

The 86-year-old king was readmitted to a Bangkok hospital on Friday evening after leaving it last month, the palace said yesterday. Doctors have asked him to stay at Siriraj Hospital for special treatment after his temperature measured 38.2 Celsius, the Bureau of the Royal Household announced in a statement.

Last night, about 10 elderly women bowed before a gilt-framed photograph of the king inside the hospital, where members of the public will be allowed to sign a book with get-well messages for Bhumibol from today.

The bureau said that after taking antibiotics, the king's blood pressure had stabilised and his fever had decreased. His condition was steadily improving, the statement added.

It gave no details on how long Bhumibol was expected to stay in hospital but said he would undergo tests to determine the cause of the infection.

On September 15, the king left hospital after more than a month of treatment for stomach inflammation. That followed his stay of nearly four years from 2009 to 2013 at the same hospital, treated for a range of illnesses.

He has rarely been seen in public since leaving the hospital last year and lives at the Klai Kangwon Palace - which translates as "Far from Worries Palace" - in the seaside town of Hua Hin, 200km south of Bangkok.

His wife, Queen Sirikit, apparently suffered a stroke in 2012. The 82-year-old queen has made almost no public appearances since she was admitted to the same hospital that year.

Born on December 5, 1927, in the United States, Bhumibol came to the throne aged 18 in 1946.

Bhumibol, a constitutional monarch, is revered by many Thais. Worries about his health and succession have contributed to Thailand's political instability of the past eight years.

He has stayed silent during Thailand's latest crisis, which began in November with opposition groups taking to the streets in a bid to remove prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra from office and culminated in the bloodless May 22 military coup. Bhumibol made several interventions in the 1970s and 1990s to call for calm during political crises.

The latest round of tumult began in 2005 and broadly pits supporters and allies of billionaire former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck's brother, against a military-backed royalist elite that despises him and has accused him of disrespect to the monarchy, which he has repeatedly denied.

Reuters, Associated Press