Prime Minister Vanhanen on sick leave due to superficial vein thrombosis

Mari Kiviniemi to replace PM in MTV3 election debate

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Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre Party) has been ordered to go on sick leave until Friday.
      The Government website announced on Tuesday that Vanhanen has been diagnosed with a superficial vein thrombosis (SVT) of a lower limb. The problem was discovered in the early afternoon, when Vanhanen paid a visit to the Parliament's occupational physician. The Prime Minister had suffered from symptoms in his lower leg for a few days.
      Vanhanen will tend to the ailment at home. He was prescribed rest and medication.
      On completion of the sick leave on Friday, the doctor will re-assess Vanhanen's situation and decide whether there might be need for further measures.
     
Vanhanen's sick leave takes place at a critical time, just before the municipal elections. Vanhanen is now unable to take part in the election debates on TV, as had been planned.
      In today's debate on the commercial channel MTV3, Vanhanen will be replaced by the Centre Party vice-chairperson and the Prime Minister's economic advisor Mari Kiviniemi.
      The Centre Party's representative for tomorrow's election debate on the Finnish Broadcasting Company's (YLE) TV1 will be announced later today.
      If there is no need to lengthen his sick leave, Vanhanen will continue the Centre Party's intensive election campaign during the weekend.
     
SVT is a fairly common and generally harmless complaint. It causes pain and erythema in the area of the affected vein. In most cases it blows over after rest of a couple of days to a week, combined with wearing of elastic stockings.
      SVT's higher risk factors relate to a concomitant deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism.
      Vanhanen's problem is believed to result - as in the case of many other sufferers - from long flights.
      A week ago Vanhanen attended a EU-Asia summit in Vietnam; the trip took around 24 hours in all, plus a good deal of sitting around in conference chambers.
      According to experts, however, the most common reason for an SVT is that one has bumped into something and this has caused an inflammation of a superficial vein in the leg.
      During his sick leave, the Prime Minister's seat in the government will be taken over by his deputy, the Minister of Finance Antti Kalliomäki (SDP).


Links:
  Matti Vanhanen, Prime Minister

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