SYDNEY—Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard was hospitalised over the weekend following a severe allergic reaction, Australian Associated Press reported on Sunday.
Howard, 70, was admitted to hospital in Sydney on Friday after suffering an anaphylactic reaction during routine dental treatment, the news agency said, quoting a leading opposition frontbencher.
The former prime minister returned to his home on Sunday, opposition politician Tony Abbott said.
"He came home this morning, he'll probably take it easy for the next couple of days but that's all it was, just a reaction to an anaesthetic, there'll be no long-term effects whatsoever," Abbott told the news agency.
Howard was Australia's second longest-serving prime minister, winning four general elections between 1996 and 2004, but his conservative coalition was soundly defeated by current Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's Labor Party in 2007.
His time in office was noted for a number of controversial stands, particularly a tough stance on asylum-seekers arriving by boat and his support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq in 2003.
