Infectious disease expert assesses Pope Francis' pneumonia treatment likely to take weeks

(25 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rome - 25 February 2025
1. Various Gemelli Hospital and pope ward windows
2. SOUNDBITE (Italian) Loredana Sarmati, Chief Infectiologist and Full Professor of Infectious Diseases at Tor Vergata University Hospital in Rome:
"Pneumonia is a major serious illness, let’s say even in young people, even if it can sometimes be treated at home. Let’s say, even young people suffer from pneumonia, but an elderly person, so with those comorbidities at the pulmonary level, it is obviously much more difficult. For the complete resolution, I mean radiological, it really takes months, the cure depends a lot on the etiological agent, on the antibiotic therapy and the complications, so what we have to expect? It is unlikely that this situation will be resolved within days for the pope, I think it will take weeks."
3. John Paul II statue at hospital
4. Wide of Gemelli Hospital
5. People walking into hospital
STORYLINE:
Pope Francis, hospitalized in critical condition with double pneumonia, was well enough to meet with the Vatican secretary of state to approve new decrees for saints and call a formal meeting to set the dates for their canonization, the Vatican said Tuesday.

The audience, which occurred Monday, signaled that the machinery of the Vatican was still grinding on and looking ahead even with Francis, 88, hospitalized and doctors warning his prognosis is guarded.

On Tuesday morning, the Vatican’s typically brief morning update said: “The pope slept well, all night.”

The previous evening, doctors had said he remained in critical condition with double pneumonia but reported a “slight improvement” in some laboratory results.

In the most upbeat bulletin in days, the Vatican said Francis had resumed work from his hospital room, calling a parish in Gaza City that he has kept in touch with since the war there began.

The Argentine pope, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, has been hospitalized since Feb. 14 at Rome’s Gemelli hospital and doctors have said his condition is touch-and-go, given his age, fragility and pre-existing lung disease before the pneumonia set in.

But in Monday’s update, they said he hadn’t had any more respiratory crises since Saturday, and the flow and concentration of supplemental oxygen has been slightly reduced.

The slight kidney insufficiency detected on Sunday was not causing alarm at the moment, doctors said, while saying his prognosis remained guarded.

According to Loredana Sarmati, Chief Infectiologist and Full Professor of Infectious Diseases at Tor Vergata University Hospital in Rome, it could take weeks if not months for the pope to fully recover.

"Pneumonia is a major serious illness," Sarmati said.

"For the complete resolution I mean eradicating it, it really takes months, and the cure depends a lot on the therapy, on the antibiotic therapy, and the complications. So what can we expect? It is unlikely that this situation will be resolved within days for the pope. I think it will take weeks."

AP Video shot by Oleg Cetinic
Production by Maria Grazia Murru

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