• Cycling

Froome recovers from four-year parasitic illness

ESPN staff
December 13, 2013
Chris Froome visited his former cycling team in Kenya last month, where he was told the news © Getty Images
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Chris Froome has revealed he is finally rid of a debilitating parasitic disease that has plagued him for the past four years, in an interview with the Independent.

The reigning Tour de France champion, who was born in Kenya, had been suffering with bilharzia, an illness usually spread by contaminated water and which is most common in Africa. He had been receiving treatment since 2009.

"At last I am free of the debilitating disease bilharzia," said Froome. "I had a test when I went back to Kenya recently and it is the first time it has come back negative since the diagnosis [in 2009]. That is fantastic news for me. I'm not going to have to worry about that any more. That should be it gone now.

"I have been going back every six months for the past two years and returning positive results. When I was first diagnosed they said it had been in my system for at least two years, but it could have been there even longer, five or six years possibly."

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