Pope Francis said on Thursday that he is suffering from acute, infectious bronchitis and that doctors recommended he cancel his planned visit to Dubai this weekendto avoid the quick changes in temperature that would be involved.
“As you can see, I’m alive,” Francis quipped at the start of an audience with participants of a symposium on health care ethics.
Francis, who turns 87 in a few weeks and had part of one lung removed as a young man, came down with the flu last week and is on antibiotics. On Tuesday, the Vatican announced he was cancelling his planned participation in the U.N. climate conference on doctors’ orders.