President Muhammadu Buhari departs Abuja on Monday for a 10-day vacation in London during which he will seek medical attention for his ailing ear.
The president has an infection in his left ear, believed to be Meniere Disease, which has caused him to drastically reduced his official engagements recently.
The condition is said to cause pains and hearing impairment.
The president had abruptly cancelled planned trips to Edo, Lagos and Rivers states recently with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo drafted to represent him.
The vice president, it would be recalled, represented him for a state visit to Lagos just as he did for the flag-off of the clean-up exercise of Ogoniland.
According to a statement issued by his Special Assistant on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, in Abuja on Sunday night, the president would see an Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist before resting in London.
The statement said: “President Muhammadu Buhari will take 10 days off and travel to London on Monday June 6th to rest.
“During the holiday, he will see an E.N.T. specialist for a persistent ear infection. The President was examined by his Personal Physician and an E.N.T Specialist in Abuja and was treated. Both Nigerian doctors recommended further evaluation purely as a precaution.”
Against reports of ill health, Adesina had previously maintained the president was “fit as a fiddle.”
Meniere’s disease is a disorder of the inner ear that causes episodes in which you feel as if you’re spinning (vertigo), and you have fluctuating hearing loss with a progressive, ultimately permanent loss of hearing, ringing in the ear (tinnitus), and sometimes a feeling of fullness or pressure in your ear. In most cases, Meniere’s disease affects only one ear.
It is estimated that approximately 1 in every 1,000 people suffers from Meniere’s disease.
The disease comes on without warning. It may come and go over a person’s lifetime. It often leaves no lasting symptoms in between bouts.
Dizziness, nausea, vomiting, ear fullness, ringing in the ears, and some hearing loss are all symptoms of an attack of Ménière’s disease. A person with this condition usually has one or more attacks a year, which may come alone or in groups. The attacks last from approximately 20 minutes to 24 hours and go away gradually. During a dizzy spell, the person feels like the world is whirling around them. They stagger from side to side and sometimes even fall down. These falling spells are called drop attacksor Tumarkin spells.
The president had in February this year officially handed over to Osinbajo as proceeded on a five-day leave also in London.
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