Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-reigning
monarch, was readmitted to a Bangkok hospital late on Friday after
leaving it last month, the palace said in an announcement on Saturday.
The
86-year-old king has been admitted for a high fever and the diagnosis
suggested blood infection, so doctors had asked him to stay at Siriraj
hospital for special treatment, the Bureau of the Royal Household said
in a statement.
It said that after taking medicine, the king's
blood pressure had stabilized and his fever had decreased. His condition
was steadily improving, the statement added.
The statement gave no details on how long the king was expected to stay in hospital.
On Sept. 15, the king left hospital after more than a month of treatment for stomach inflammation.
That
followed his stay of nearly four years from 2009 to 2013 at the same
hospital, where he was treated for a range of illnesses.
He has
rarely been seen in public since leaving the hospital in 2013 and lives
at the Klai Kangwon Palace – which translates as “Far from Worries
Palace” – in the seaside town of Hua Hin, south of Bangkok.
The king, a constitutional monarch, is revered by many Thais.
He
has stayed silent during Thailand's latest crisis which began in
November with opposition groups taking to the streets in a bid to remove
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from office and culminated in the
bloodless May 22 military coup.
He made several interventions in the 1970s and 1990s to call for calm during political crises.
The
latest round of tumult began in 2005 and broadly pits supporters and
allies of billionaire former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra,
Yingluck's brother, against a military-backed royalist elite that
despises him and has accused him of disrespect to the monarchy.
Thaksin
has repeatedly pledged his allegiance to the king, dismissing the
accusations as a smear campaign by his powerful enemies to discredit
him. He has lived in self-imposed exile since 2008 to avoid a jail term
handed down for graft.
Thailand has harsh laws designed to protect
the monarchy. Those found guilty of insulting the royal family can
serve up to 15 years in prison for each offense.
