Papal health update

From the Associated Press:

"'The Holy Father today was struck by a high-fever caused by a confirmed infection of the urinary tract,' (Vatican) spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told The Associated Press by telephone.

"The pope was receiving antibiotics at the Vatican, Navarro-Valls said.

"A urinary infection can produce fever and a drop in blood pressure as reported in the pope, said Dr. Marc Siegel, a specialist in internal medicine at the New York University Medical Center.

"The pope's risk of such an infection is heightened because he is elderly which suggests his prostate is probably enlarged debilitated and run down from the illness that recently sent him to the hospital, Siegel said.

"Urinary infections tend to respond well to antibiotics, given either as pills or intravenously, and 'I would suspect there's a very good chance he's going to recover well,' Siegel said."