Abe's disease What is ulcerative colitis?

Abe's Disease What is Ulcerative Colitis? August 28, 14:36

Since his teens, Prime Minister Abe has suffered from "ulcerative colitis", an intractable disease in which the mucous membranes of the large intestine become inflamed, causing severe abdominal pain and diarrhea.

14 years ago in 2006, he became the prime minister at the age of 52, the youngest after the war, but he retired in about a year as his symptoms worsened.

Then, eight years ago, in December 2012, he was appointed as the prime minister again, and since the inauguration of the second government, it seems that the symptoms have stabilized by a new drug that suppresses inflammation in seven years and eight months. And I have been in power.

However, according to the people involved, this June's examination revealed an abnormality, and the examination done at Keio University Hospital on 17th this month revealed that the symptoms had worsened.

A week later, the test showed that the medication had improved, but the patient was diagnosed as needing medication for the next year.

For this reason, it seems that Prime Minister Abe thought that it would be difficult to continue as Prime Minister, thinking that “you should not make a mistake in political judgment while your physical condition is not perfect”.

What is ulcerative colitis?

Ulcerative colitis is an incurable disease in which the mucous membranes of the large intestine become inflamed, causing severe abdominal pain and diarrhea. The cause is unknown.

The number of patients ranges from adolescents to the elderly, mainly in their 20s, and the number of patients in Japan is more than 166,000, about 1 in 1,000, and it is said to be the most intractable disease.

Treatment is mainly medication, and effective drugs have been developed.

In addition, steroid drugs that suppress inflammation and drip infusions that suppress substances that cause inflammation are also used, but some of them are seriously ill, causing symptoms such as fever and anemia, which may cause colorectal cancer. The risk of complications increases.

Approximately 5% of patients do not improve their symptoms and may have to remove the large intestine.

Surgery improves symptoms such as abdominal pain, but since there is no large intestine that absorbs excess water, the number of toilets increases, which may cause problems in daily life after surgery.

The recent Prime Minister Abe

It was confirmed that the first person in Japan to be infected with the new coronavirus, and on January 16, the government established an "information communication room" at the crisis management center of the Prime Minister's official residence.

After January 26, Prime Minister Abe will enter the official residences and official residences on weekends and holidays, and will discuss the correspondence with Chief Cabinet Secretary Kan, Minister Nishimura's economic revitalization, Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare, and other relevant ministries and agencies. I continued to work.

After that, the infection spread, and the government issued an emergency declaration based on the law to 7 prefectures such as Tokyo on April 7, and expanded the target area nationwide on 16th.

The declaration of emergency was lifted on May 25, the first time in about a month and a half, but Prime Minister Abe's office continued, and nearly five weeks passed on June 21, almost four weeks after the declaration was lifted. I spent my first month at home in Tokyo.

During this time, I have been working for 147 consecutive days.

Then, in July, we responded to a series of heavy rain disasters.

In the roughly two months from August 16th to vacation, it was seven days without work.

On the 15th, the day before the vacation, I had a meeting with Vice Prime Minister Aso and Minister of Finance at home for about an hour.

Prime Minister Abe spends summer vacations in August every year, spending time at villas in Yamanashi Prefecture, but this time he spends his time in his home in Tokyo and on the 17th, at Keio University Hospital in Shinjuku Ward. I had a one day checkup.

The secretary said, "I went to the hospital to take care of my physical condition after the day off," and a person related to the hospital explained that it was an additional medical examination of a medical checkup that I received in mid-June.

Prime Minister Abe reopened his public affairs on the 19th, and said, "I was examined to make sure my physical condition was perfect. I would like to return to work and work hard."

And, also in this week 24 days, again visited the Keio University Hospital, after having spent about three and a half hours, ask in detail the results of the examination of the "17 days, was carried out an additional inspection.

Every effort to physical condition management, I want to do my best from now on."

From the 25th of the following day, I entered the Prime Minister's Office in the morning, attended cabinet meetings, received reports on the infection status of the new coronavirus, and worked as usual.