By Noor-Jehan Yoro Badat
Former health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang "is ill, but not desperately ill".
Her doctor, Professor Jeff Wing, clinical head for the department of medicine at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital and Wits University, on Sunday said Tshabalala-Msimang was not "gravely ill", as alluded to by City Press.
But Wing added Tshabalala-Msimang had been "unwell for about a month" and this was "related to the liver". The former health minister underwent a five-hour-long liver transplant at the Wits University Donald Gordon Medical Centre on March 14, 2007.
One of the possibilities, said Wing, was that the transplanted organ may be rejecting her body, but "it's not for certain".
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Tshabalala-Msimang has undergone diagnostic tests, Wing said.
"These would be tests to see if there is rejection. It's been largely to determine what the cause of the liver problem is and to exclude surgical complications from the previous operation," he explained.
He added they should have the results and more information towards the end of the week.
Wing said he could not speculate on whether she would need a second liver transplant.
"It's for the transplant committee to decide, as they do with every patient," he said.
If it came to a second transplant, however, Wing said Tshabalala-Msimang was fit enough.
"Despite being on life-long immuno-suppressants, transplant complications did occur," he said.
"Some (transplants) are complicated, but it's not unknown for it to cause problems,"
Tshabalala-Msimang has been in the hospital's private wing, Folateng, for two weeks.
"She's tired, but she's fine," Wing said. "Her family is worried because they are very close, but they're all coping well."
At the time Tshabalala-Msimang had her liver transplant, there was speculation that she had jumped the queue - but this has been denied.
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