Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been hospitalised with abdominal pain after suffering 10 days of non-stop hiccuping.
According to sources at the presidential palace, the 66-year-old felt the pain in the evening before he was admitted to a military hospital in Brasilia.
He is now undergoing “tests to investigate the cause of his hiccups.”
Bolsonaro’s press office told CNN that medical experts had advised that he remain under observation for a period of 24 to 48 hours.
But the monitoring did not necessarily have to be in the hospital, they added.
Despite the president’s condition, sources told CNN that he is still doing “well.”
His hospitalisation comes a year after he battled Covid-19.
Mr Bolsonaro, who underwent surgery after he was stabbed during his campaign trial in 2018, is said to have complained for more than a week about the hiccups.
He said they had been causing him difficulties when speaking in public.
On Tuesday during an address, he told his supporters that he was “voiceless” and worried that he spoke too much the “hiccup bout” would return.
Last week Thursday at a virtual event he echoed the same concerns and told listeners: “I may not be able to express myself properly on this live,” he listeners.”
