The information came from his Chief Economic Adviser Tanimu Yakubu who disclosed that as a matter of fact, he had been regularly discussing with the President on telephone just as some other key government officials.
In a short statement to The Guardian yesterday, Tanimu expressed Yar'Adua's readiness to return to attend to matters of state especially on the anti-terrorism bill currently with the National Assembly.
Tanimu's words: "President Yar'Adua this evening (last night) spoke to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, Senate President David Mark and House of Representatives Speaker Dimeji Bankole.
"I also spoke with the president this evening after he had spoken to these leaders who have continuously held the forte for him. In my discussion with him, he directed me to get the Attorney-General to intensify lobby for the passage of the anti-terrorism bill by the National Assembly which the president forwarded to the Senate and the Federal House of Reps early October. He said that he would like it to be the first bill he assents to on his return to Nigeria."
He added: "Mr. President's health condition has substantially improved. In the last week, I have spoken to him on telephone countless number of times. Our conversations every time we spoke lasted more than five minutes. Mr. President also told me that he spoke to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan two times in the last five days."
And as far as United States (U.S.) medical board-certified cardiologists are concerned, acute pericaditis, the ailment which Yar'Adua is officially said to be suffering from, does not normally require treatment for a long period of time for which the President has been away.
Yar'Adua has now been away from office on medical grounds for more than 40 days, fuelling speculations on his medical conditions and creating a political vacuum in governance with its attendant fallouts at home and abroad.
Dr. Oluyemi Badero and Dr. Ola Akinboboye, New York- based award-winning cardiologists and American board-certified doctors, both agreed that the treatment of the ailment should take no more than a few days, and certainly not more than five days in all.
Cardiology is the medical specialty that deals with heart conditions, where pericaditis develops.
Badero and Akinboboye, in their early 50s and late 40s, were trained at Nigerian universities at Ife and Ibadan, but have become forces to be reckoned with in U.S. medical circles. They both run very flourishing private practices in New York City, a rather competitive medical market.
Speaking in an interview, Akinboboye, who is a nuclear cardiologist, explained that the Federal Government had been "deliberately vague" on the nature of President Yar'Adua's ailment because "simple acute pericaditis treatment does not take too long in most people."
Adding that the treatment could be handled in a "few days," Akinboboye, who is among the list of top New York doctors and is also a professor of medicine at the New York State University, said that the President's handlers might have just held back pertinent information about his medical condition.
Speaking in a similar vein, Badero, a cardiologist who has won praise from the U.S. Congress for his professional worth, also said: "If no surgical procedure is needed, the usual hospital stay is less than five days, with medication."
Akinboboye actually listed three possible instances and treatment at least one of which Yar'Adua might have in deed encountered.
He said in some cases, Motrin, a pain medicine could help. But according to him, where there is fluid around the heart so big as to restrict the functioning of the heart, which he called tamponade pericaditis, a more serious treatment is called for. This condition, he said, could cause inflammation and the medical team would have to drain the fluid through a tube passed through a hole made to the area.
A third and most serious instance, he added, would be if the heart had become encased by a solid, cement-like foreign object, that would be constrictive pericaditis and would certainly require an "open heart surgery."
According to Badero in his own analysis, pericaditis is an inflammation of the outer covering of the heart, known as the pericardium, adding that "the commonest causes are viral infection, complication of heart attack, collagen vascular diseases like lupus, and uremia (excess toxic body waste products) from chronic kidney disease."
He said: "Given Yar'Adua's history, it would seem his most likely cause is chronic kidney disease. The usual symptoms are dull, constant chest pains, worse on deep breathing and if there is development of fluid around the heart because of the inflammation of the lining, there can be low blood pressure, shortness of breath, dizziness, and swelling of the neck, abdomen and legs."
According to him, the treatment consists mainly of treating the underlying cause together with the use of anti-inflammatory drugs ( ibuprofen, indomethacin or in severe cases, steroidal drugs like prednisone).
In Yar'Adua's case, the cardiologist said: "Dialysis will remove the toxic wastes and the fluid build-up around the heart if any. In rare cases , he may require pericardiocentesis, a minor surgical procedure, to remove the fluid directly from around the heart."
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