MOSCOW (Reuters) – Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said on Monday that he had a high fever and a strong cough and that three of the 15 prisoners in his Russian prison were being treated at the hospital for tuberculosis.
Navalny, 44, a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, declared a hunger strike last week to protest what he said was the prison authorities’ refusal to give him adequate medical care for acute back and leg pain.
His allies said they would make a continuing protest outside his prison starting on Tuesday, unless he was examined by a doctor of his choice and received what they considered an appropriate remedy.
State media and some members of a prison monitoring group have accused him of faking his medical problems to keep himself in the public eye, something Navalny and his allies deny.
On Monday, Navalny said that a third person from his ward had been taken to the hospital with tuberculosis, that he had a high fever and cough, and joked somberly that getting the disease could help him alleviate his other illnesses.
“If I have tuberculosis, maybe that will take away back pain and numbness in my legs. That would be nice, ”he wrote on Instagram.
“I quote the official statistics for today’s temperature measurement:” Navalny AA, strong cough, temperature 38.1, “he wrote in an Instagram post, adding that he planned to continue his hunger strike.
A temperature above 38 degrees Celsius (100.58 degrees Fahrenheit) usually indicates a fever caused by an infection or illness.
Navalny’s lawyers regularly visited him in custody and helped him continue to post messages on social media.
Authorities at the corrective penal colony IK-2, 100 km east of Moscow, where the opposition politician is being held, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on a tuberculosis outbreak or on Navalny’s temperature and cough.
They said earlier that his condition was satisfactory and that he received all necessary medical care.
Anastasiya Vasilyeva, a doctor and Navalny’s ally, confirmed that plans for a protest will take place on Tuesday.
Additional reporting by Vladmir Soldatkin and Polina Nikolskaya; Edition by Timothy Heritage