Sickly Balkenende cancels engagements

By Véronique Vallières

Date: 30/09/04

THE ability of the Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende to chair the next European Council on 5 November has been thrown into doubt, because of complications to a foot injury. It seems that he may be suffering from necrotizing fasciitis, a serious and rare condition popularly known as flesh-eating disease.

Balkenende initially cancelled official engagements for one week on 14 September, but his wound must now be treated with a skin graft. He has already decided that he will not be attending the EU-ASEM summit on 8-9 October in Hanoi. His attendance at other important meetings, such as the EU-India summit on 14 October and the EU-Russia summit on 11 November, both in The Hague, is also in doubt.

According to Balkenende's spokesperson Gerard Van der Wulp the expected return date of the prime minister is uncertain. "We don't know [when he will resume his functions]. He will stay at the hospital for at least one more week, but it all depends on how well his foot recovers."

Balkenende is suffering from a bacterial infection of his right foot. "He has been hospitalized [at the Ijselland Hospital in Rotterdam] for 15 days and was operated on twice," Van der Wulp said. "He is now waiting for his foot to fully recover before receiving skin transplantation." Luckily the disease has been diagnosed in the very early stages of the infection, the spokesman said.

Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg is to replace Balkenende as president-in-office of the Council of the EU for the EU-ASEM summit.

Gerrit Zalm, the Dutch deputy prime minister and finance minister, was initially assigned to cover for Balkenende, but Zalm requested that Juncker take over the presidency during the summit. "It seems to be the usual procedure that the following chairman replaces the current chairman," Van der Wulp said. "It's kind of a Brussels ritual."

Whether Balkenende does have necrotizing fasciitis is not yet confirmed, though he does have group A streptococcus and staphylococcus, which are among the bacteria that can trigger the disease.

Yves de Gheldre, of the micro- bacteriology laboratory of Brussels' Cliniques Universitaires de Mont-Godinne, said: "Some bacteria have genes that attack the layer of tissue between the skin and muscles [the fascia].

"But there are tons of other bacterial infections that require skin transplantation, like diphtheria or tetanus. Lethal cases of the flesh- eating disease have attracted a lot of media attention, but it is still a very rare disease."

There is a possibility that Balkenende will have fully recovered in a few weeks' time.

"But if the wound infects again it can be catastrophic," de Gheldre said.

One month before the European Council on 5 November 2004 the ability of the Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende to chair the meeting was thrown into doubt, because of complications to a foot injury. It was agreed that Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean Claude-Juncker take over as President-in-Office in that case.