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South African Doctors Find "Abnormality" In Mandela's Blood
by Philippe Bernes-Lasserre
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Doctors said Friday they had found an "abnormality" in the blood of 82-year-old former South African president Nelson Mandela, but that it presented no threat to his life.
Mandela himself, frail, but beaming, said: "I feel good ... I know that I'm not going to die tonight."
Later, however, when asked if he felt unwell, he replied: "not really ... I had a little bit of a flu two-three weeks ago."
Doctors Michael Kew and Michael Plit told journalists at Mandela's Johannesburg home that they found an abnormally high level of prostate-specific antigen during a routine examination about 10 days ago.
Mandela underwent an operation in 1994 in which part of his prostate was removed.
Said Plit: "A panel of urologists will now be looking at the prostate and make further tests on that abnormality. Mr. Mandela remains very well. He has no symptoms whatsoever.
"There is no question of any threat at all to Madiba's life," he added, using the clan-name by which the former president is affectionately known.
"It is very common for someone of Madiba's age and background," Plit said, adding that the tests had shown Mandela's heart and liver were both in good shape.
The antigen is "a product from the prostate that one finds in higher quantities in the blood in some prostatic diseases," Kew explained.
Both doctors refused to speculate on any diseases ahead of the next tests when asked if the antigen could indicate cancer of the prostate.
Plit said Mandela would have no problem continuing his engagements.
Mandela himself said he would visit Arusha, Tanzania, on Sunday and Monday, as planned, for peace talks on Burundi.
Mandela, who is the chief mediator on that central African country's civil war, said he would also carry out a planned visit to Paris December 10-12 for a donor conference on Burundi.
Mandela was a big man - and a boxer - in his youth, when he also smoked cigarettes, but spent 27 years in apartheid jails, much of it at hard labor on Robben Island, off Cape Town.
Quarrying lime there permanently damaged his eyesight - aides always forbid photographers to use their flashes - and he still suffers from a knee he hurt in a fall on Robben Island, sometimes supporting himself on someone's shoulder as he walks.
Anthony Sampson, in "Mandela, the authorized biography," recounts that when Mandela became president in 1994 at the age of 75, "his physique and stamina amazed his physicians ... Sometimes he suffered from exhaustion, and his doctors insisted on total rest. But he would recuperate quickly, and treat his long flights in the presidential plane as a rest - he appeared unaffected by jet lag. At 76, his energy and vitality, doctors agreed, were like those of a man 20 years younger."
Mandela, who on his 80th birthday married Graca Machel, widow of Mozambican president Samora Machel, still keeps up a grueling schedule, making innumerable speeches and spending much of his time raising money for schools, but his age is showing.
On Friday, his hair a mixture of grey and silver, and wearing a trademark brightly colored hand-made shirt, he walked unaided, but slowly.
The former president cancelled a trip to Jordan earlier this month on his doctors' advice as he was recovering from a bad bout of flu, and had a persistent cough, which they treated with antibiotics.
He had been due to address the Global Summit on Peace through Tourism in Amman on November 9, and pay a courtesy call on King Abdallah II.
He visited Britain and the United States shortly after that, however.
His doctors said Friday they had called the press conference to short-circuit any rumors about Mandela's health, and that they would hold another after the next tests to announce any treatment that might follow.
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