By A Correspondent| Emmerson Mnangagwa’s deputy Constantino Chiwenga has revealed the illness that made him bedridden for several months in China, a condition previously linked to HIV AIDS.

Chiwenga was speaking at his rural home celebrating his return to “good health.”

While criticising Zimbabwean doctors and at the same time praising Chinese medics, Chiwenga revealed more on his illness.

He said he was suffering from a disease called idiopathic oesophageal stricture.

He quoted by the Sunday Mail said,

“I was telling colleagues that I spent close to six months without seeing the sun. I only saw it this last Saturday upon returning home,” said Chiwenga.

He continued saying:

“I want to thank you all for your prayers. Those prayers made me to survive. “Since I started falling sick in October last year, there were not many who thought I would heal completely. There were not many who thought I would be standing before you like this.

“The sickness is called idiopathic oesophageal stricture. It means that you cannot take in food and also you cannot even vomit. It involves blocking of the oesophagus and I spent a lot of time in the intensive care unit.”

An academic reading (below) links the condition to HIV AIDS. FULL TEXT:

https://youtu.be/rrHSMVjgWmo

Idiopathic midesophageal stricture: a new cause of dysphagia in a patient with AIDS.
Shapiro BD, et al. South Med J. 1997.
Show full citation
Abstract
A number of disorders may result in the complaint of dysphagia in HIV-infected patients. These include fungal, viral, bacterial, parasitic, medication-induced, and idiopathic lesions in the esophagus. In the current case, a 32-year-old man with advanced HIV infection had recurrent bouts of esophageal stricture. No ulcer was associated with this stricture. No infectious causes of the stricture could be determined. The patient required multiple upper endoscopies and dilatations for treatment of this stricture and subsequently had a food impaction. This is the first case in the medical literature of an idiopathic stricture in the middle portion of the esophagus in an HIV-infected patient. We postulate that this lesion may have been caused by the patient’s medications. Esophageal strictures should be considered in HIV-infected patients with severe dysphagia or food-bolus impactions of the esophagus.

PMID 9003833 [Indexed for MEDLINE]