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Arafat doctors in paris ruled out leukemia Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6691139http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6691139
Arafat Doctors Rule Out Leukemia, Cite Improvement
Tue Nov 2, 2004 12:52 PM ET
By Matthew Bigg
CLAMART, France (Reuters) - French doctors said on Tuesday Yasser Arafat was responding to treatment and ruled out leukemia, though aides said the Palestinian leader could remain in a French military hospital for several more weeks.
Arafat was well enough to follow the U.S. presidential elections and had taken calls from heads of state and senior Palestinian officials, said aides in the southwestern Paris suburb where the 75-year-old leader is being treated.
Initial tests "confirmed the abnormal blood count, high white blood cell count and low platelet count and ruled out a diagnosis of leukemia," Palestinian envoy to Paris Leila Shahid said in the first joint statement with the Percy military hospital treating Arafat.
The statement, drawn up with doctors treating Arafat, said there had been a "general improvement" in his condition over the past 72 hours.
Arafat was rushed to France from his shell-battered compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah last Friday with severe stomach pains, diarrhea and vomiting and what doctors said at the time could be leukemia.
"There is a slow but positive development. We have overcome the critical stage in Arafat's health. Now it is a matter of time for him to get treatment and recover," Mohammed Dahlan, a former Palestinian interior minister, told Reuters in Paris.
"As long as Arafat remains in a healthy place and is receiving proper medical care he will improve tremendously. If he returns to the Muqata (compound) in Ramallah he will have a setback," said Dahlan, part of a Palestinian delegation that accompanied Arafat to France.
Palestinian officials say tests had revealed no tumors or serious illness but said privately they expected Arafat to remain in hospital for at least another three weeks.
"By Saturday the doctors will most probably have the final diagnosis. Then he will need some time for treatment. It could take three to four weeks. But it all depends on the diagnosis of the doctors," said a senior aide.
SYMBOL OF RESISTENCE
Arafat, for decades a symbol of the Palestinian struggle with Israel for a state, had been in effect confined to his offices by Israeli forces for the past 2-1/2 years.
Israel accuses Arafat of fomenting violence in an uprising that began in 2000, something Arafat denies. Under President Bush, Washington has tried to shut him out of the Middle East picture.
Aides, keen to present Arafat as in charge despite ill health, said he was watching Tuesday's presidential elections but refused to be drawn on whether he preferred Bush or Democratic challenger John Kerry.
"Arafat is following the American elections and he will be watching closely ... because it will have a huge impact on the Palestinians," senior aide Mohammad Rashid told Reuters.
Arafat called an aide to condemn a suicide bombing which killed four people including the bomber in Tel Aviv on Monday. He also spoke to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie and other Arab leaders, aides said.
Aside from immediate family members and a few aides Arafat has not received visitors, the aides said.
(Additional reporting by Wafa Amr in Paris)
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