Asma al-Assad, Syria’s first lady, has been diagnosed with leukaemia, the Syrian presidency announced in a statement on Tuesday.
“First Lady Asma al-Assad has been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia,” the statement read.
It revealed that she “will undergo a specialised treatment protocol” that requires social distancing to avoid infection, adding that she will “temporarily withdraw from all direct engagements as part of her treatment plan”.
Acute myeloid leukaemia is an aggressive cancer of the bone marrow and the blood.
Assad has previously been treated for breast cancer. In August 2019, she announced that she was “completely” free of the disease a year after her diagnosis.