Mayor Menino hospitalized for virus

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

Mayor Thomas M. Menino has spent the weekend in a Boston hospital with a virus after coming home two days early from a vacation in Italy, his spokeswoman said on Sunday.

Menino has been lethargic and coughing and his feet have been swollen and bothering him for some time, said the spokeswoman, Dot Joyce. He went to his doctor on Friday afternoon for a series of tests and was admitted to Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

“They are diagnosing it as a virus as this point,” Joyce said on Sunday. “He’s fine. He’s tired. He is participating in decisions regarding the storm.”

Doctors have ruled out pneumonia and bronchitis, Joyce said. It does not appear that the swelling in his feet is connected to the virus, Joyce said. Doctors did not indicate when Menino would be released from the hospital.

“We’re hoping Monday or Tuesday, but we’ll see,” Joyce said.

Menino, 69, has been mayor for almost 20 years and is considering a run for a sixth term next fall. He has been hospitalized roughly a dozen times over the past two decades for aliments that have included two knee surgeries and Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammation of the intestines.

On a trip to Italy in 2010, Menino contracted a bacterial infection in his left elbow which required two stays in a Boston hospital. Earlier this month, Menino and his wife traveled to Italy for a two-week vacation highlighted by a Mediterranean cruise. The trip, for their 46th wedding anniversary, included a stop in Sicily, where Angela Menino was eager to explore her heritage. The couple cut the trip short and flew back to Boston on Thursday.

“He knew there was a storm coming and he wasn’t feeling well,” Joyce said.

Before the vacation, Menino began wearing running shoes with his dress suits. His feet have been swelling, Joyce said, and the shoes are more comfortable.

“His feet have been bothering him for some time,” Joyce said. “They don’t believe they are connected” to the virus.