Argentina’s Kirchner out of hospital, ordered to rest

BUENOS AIRES (AFP) ― President Cristina Kirchner, who has faced recurring medical problems, was released from the hospital Sunday after a new health crisis that forced her to cancel a trip to this week’s G20 summit.

The Argentine leader, 61, who was hospitalized one week ago with fever and stomach pains, was diagnosed as having an intestinal infection.

Doctors allowed her to leave the hospital but have ordered her to rest in bed for 10 days, her office said.

Kirchner had to cancel her attendance at the G20 summit later this week in Brisbane, Australia. Argentina will be represented instead by her Economy Minister Axel Kicillof and Foreign Minister Hector Timerman.

This is the third time in less than a year that Kirchner, who is in her last year in office, has been sidelined by health issues.

She was waylaid for several days last month by pharyngitis, an inflammation at the back of the throat.

And in July, Kirchner was sidelined for several days by laryngitis, forcing her to cancel a trip to Paraguay.

A little over a year ago, the president underwent surgery for an intracranial hematoma, or bleeding in the brain, forcing her to refrain from working for six weeks.

In early 2012, she underwent surgery to remove her thyroid after being misdiagnosed with cancer.

Kirchner’s husband Nestor, her predecessor as president, died in 2010 of heart failure. He was 60.