SAN FRANCISCO – Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California is being treated at a Bay Area hospital for shingles, her office announced Thursday.
In a statement obtained by KPIX, the senator said she was diagnosed with the infection during the February recess.
“I have been hospitalized and am receiving treatment in San Francisco and expect to make a full recovery,” Feinstein said. “I hope to return to the Senate later this month.”
A day earlier, a spokesperson for the senator said she was dealing with a “health matter” and had hoped to return to Washington soon.
During her absence, Feinstein has already missed multiple votes in the chamber, where Democrats have a razor-thin majority. With Feinstein and Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania away from Capitol Hill due to health-related reasons, Vice President Kamala Harris has already broken multiple tie votes in the Senate this week.
The longest-serving woman ever in the United States Senate, Feinstein announced last month that she would not seek re-election in 2024, ending a decades-long political career that began in San Francisco in the late 1960s. Feinstein, 89, was first elected to the Senate in 1992 and has won re-election five times.
Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox, and can often be painful. Age and previous chickenpox infection are risk factors.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, one out of three people in the U.S. will develop shingles over their lifetime and an estimated 1 million Americans get shingles each year.