Former US president Bill Clinton in hospital with non-Covid-related infection

Former US president Bill Clinton has been admitted to hospital due to an infection, with a non-Covid-related infection, his spokesman has said.

Mr Clinton, 75, was sent to the University of California Irvine Medical Centre, south-east of Los Angeles, for treatment on Tuesday evening, spokesman Angel Ureña said.

His physicians said he has been administered IV antibiotics and fluids, added the spokesman.

“He is on the mend, in good spirits and is incredibly thankful to the doctors, nurses, and staff providing him with excellent care,” Mr Ureña said.

“After two days of treatment, his white blood cell count is trending down and he is responding to antibiotics well,” the spokesman said, quoting the former's president's physicians Dr Alpesh Amin and Dr Lisa Bardack.

“The California-based medical team has been in constant communication with the President’s New York-based medical team, including his cardiologist.

"We hope to have him go home soon.”

A spokesman for the Clinton Foundation said the former president was in the Los Angeles area for private events related to his charitable organisation.

In the years since Mr Clinton left the White House in 2001, the former president has faced several health scares.

In 2004, he underwent quadruple bypass surgery after experiencing prolonged chest pains and shortness of breath.

The politician returned to the hospital for surgery for a partially collapsed lung in 2005, and in 2010 had a pair of stents implanted in a coronary artery.

He responded by embracing a largely vegan diet that saw him lose weight and report improved health.

In the meantime, he repeatedly returned to the stump, campaigning for Democratic candidates - mostly notably his wife, Hillary, during her failed 2008 bid for the presidential nomination.

And in 2016, as Hillary Clinton sought the White House as the Democratic nominee, Bill Clinton — by then a grandfather and nearing 70 — returned to the campaign trail.