Sports doctor Dmitry Babeleuk reacted to the news that former Dutch PSV striker Lucas Perez, known in Ukraine for his performances for Kyiv’s Dynamo and Lviv’s Karpaty, has been diagnosed with an open form of tuberculosis.
Lucas Perez“Lucas has been diagnosed with tuberculosis. A strange story for 2025, but nevertheless - tuberculosis exists and people are suffering from it. Who else knows this better than us, as Ukraine has long been considered (and may still be considered) an area with an epidemic of tuberculosis.
This is quite an unpleasant, often fatal infectious disease transmitted by airborne droplets. A typical method for diagnosing tuberculosis is fluorography or CT of the lungs, which patients undergo after several weeks of cough and fever. The disease is confirmed by cavities in the lungs characteristic of the tuberculosis bacteria.
The player faces a long treatment ahead. A problem is antibiotic resistance to the bacteria, so patients are forced to take special anti-tuberculosis medications.
It is not excluded that Lucas caught the bacteria in Ukraine (Lucas played in Ukraine from 2011 to 2013, - note editor), as it often remains in a latent state and does not manifest itself in any way. Only about one in ten latent infections progresses to active manifestations of the disease.
In Lucas’s case, it is difficult to predict any timelines, but we can only wish him health!” - Babeleuk wrote on his Telegram channel.
