BRITAIN: Doctors treating the former Russian spy who is seriously ill in hospital said yesterday that thallium was an "unlikely" cause of his illness after tests found less of the metal in his body than they expected.
In an extraordinary twist to the case, the consultant caring for Alexander Litvinenko said the cause of his condition may never be known. He remains in intensive care because he has suffered damage to his immune system and has to be isolated to protect him from infection.
Dr Amit Nathwani, the consultant treating him at London's University College Hospital, said that while thallium could not be ruled out, doctors were looking for other causes. "His symptoms are slightly odd for thallium poisoning and the levels of thallium we were able to detect are not the kind of levels you would see in toxicity."
Another medical expert who has examined him suggested he may have been poisoned with a radioactive form of thallium, a toxic metal. Mr Litvinenko has symptoms which can only be explained by "something other than thallium", according to John Henry, a clinical toxicologist at St Mary's hospital in west London.
The damage done to his bone marrow and the fact that his white blood cells had been wiped out also suggested another factor.
"Radioactive thallium adds a new dimension to this case," Mr Henry said. "It means his bone marrow is at very high risk."
An associate, Alex Goldfarb, who has visited Mr Litvinenko in hospital every day, said his condition appeared to have worsened yesterday. He said his friend was more exhausted, had become thinner and spoke with more difficulty. "To me, he looks like he is slowly deteriorating," he said.
Mr Litvinenko, who defected six years ago and is now a British citizen, had been investigating the murder of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya when he fell ill. Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch is looking at two meetings on November 1st, the day Mr Litvinenko was poisoned; one was with two Russians at a London hotel and the second with an Italian espionage expert, Dr Mario Scaramella, at a sushi restaurant.
Dr Scaramella yesterday emerged from hiding in Rome to give a press conference, where he gave an account of their meeting.
He said he wanted to warn Mr Litvinenko about an e-mail hit-list which featured both their names. He also had an e-mail identifying a group of men responsible for the assassination of Politkovskaya. Mr Litvinenko, who ate sushi and soup, said he was not worried about the e-mail.
Dr Scaramella said: "It's of deep concern to me that anything like this could happen."