Mandela ‘much better’ after week in hospital

JOHANNESBURG, April 03 (AFP)

Nelson Mandela is “much better” and responding satisfactorily to treatment after a week in hospital suffering from pneumonia, the South African presidency said Wednesday.

The frail 94-year-old anti-apartheid hero is steadily improving and doctors are happy with his progress, President Jacob Zuma’s office said in a statement.

“His doctors say he continues to respond satisfactorily to treatment and is much better now than he was when he was admitted to hospital on the 27th of March 2013,” it said.

“He has been visited by family and continues to make steady progress.”

No details were given on a possible release from the undisclosed hospital where he is being treated.

The Nobel peace laureate was admitted shortly before midnight a week ago, his third hospital stay since December.

Doctors last week drained excess fluid that had built up on the lining of Mandela’s lungs because of a recurring infection.

The procedure helped him breathe without difficulty.

Last month Mandela spent a night in hospital for a scheduled checkup and in December he was admitted for 18 days for a lung infection and gallstones surgery.

It was his longest admission since he walked free from jail in 1990.

Mandela’s ill health has prompted an outpouring of wishes and prayers, from US President Barack Obama to locals penning messages on stones to leave outside his Johannesburg home.