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After battling a reoccurring lung infection for most of the year, South Africa’s former president Nelson Mandela hasn’t improved much and remains ill.

The country’s beloved “Madiba” is also unable to speak because of tubes that are keeping his lungs clear of fluid. His former wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela updated the Sunday Independent on his condition.

“He remains very sensitive to any germs, so he has to be kept literally sterile. The bedroom there (in his suburban Johannesburg home) is like an ICU ward,” Winnie Madikizela-Mandela said. “He is 95 years old and it is difficult for him, because of all the tubes that are in his mouth to clear the (fluid from his) lungs, and prevent an infection recurring.” Because of those tubes, she said, he communicates through his face.

“But the doctors have told us they hope he will be able to recover his voice,” she said, adding that he is being treated by 22 doctors at his home.

Madikizela-Mandela also shot down rumors that the anti-apartheid leader was on life support.

“I have heard this nonsense that he is on life support. He is not,” she told the newspaper. When asked if he was peaceful, she said, “Very. When he is very relaxed, he is fine,” adding that it helps he is at his home, an environment that he recognizes.

This newest report on the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s condition comes just days before the release of the film based on his life, Long Walk to Freedom, starring Idris Elba.

As always, our thoughts and prayers are with Madiba as he recovers.

SOURCE: Huffington Post | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty