ABSTRACT
At the age of 65, Nelson Mandela, while imprisoned on Robbin Island off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, developed tuberculous pleuritis. He gives a very graphic account of his diagnosis and treatment in his book: “Without any preliminaries he tapped me roughly on my chest and then said gruffly, There is water in your lung.’ He asked a nurse to bring him a syringe and without further ado he poked it into my chest and drew out some brownish liquid” (1). Tuberculous pleuritis can strike the old as well as the young, but once treated it does not usually affect the health or longevity of the individual.
