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Invited Faculty – chairs

2018 SAHCS CONFERENCE CHAIRS
LUCY ALLAIS -
MOHERNDRAN ARCHARY - Dr Archary is a Paediatric Infectious Disease Specialist in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at King Edward VIII Hospital affiliated to the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal. He is actively involved with the management of children with HIV. His research interests include antiretroviral drug therapeutics, viral resistance and optimal timing of initiation of antiretroviral therapy in the developing world.
FUNEKA BANGO - Dr Funeka Bango is a lecturer at the University of Cape Town. She has extensive experience in managing infectious diseases at primary health care level in South Africa. She also has experience in the South African private healthcare sector as the former Managing Director of Aid for AIDS. Dr Bango is passionate about equity in access to healthcare, with a particular focus on infectious diseases. In 2012, she was recognized as one of the Mail & Guardian top 200 young South Africans for her contribution towards the fight against HIV. Dr Bango is currently working towards a PhD in Health Economics. Her research focus is economic evaluation of combination HIV prevention interventions.
PIERRE BROUARD - Pierre Brouard is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Sexualities, AIDS and Gender (CSA&G) at the University of Pretoria and a registered Clinical Psychologist. He has worked in HIV since the mid 1980’s and at the Centre since 2001 as a manager, researcher, writer, facilitator and teacher. His interests include sexualities, gender, diversity, transformation and human rights. He has written a number of opinion pieces on aspects of HIV and AIDS, worked with media AIDS projects in South Africa and contributed to a booklet on healthy sexualities for Soul City. Selected publications have covered: Research challenges around gender, same-sex sexuality and HIV/AIDS in South Africa; Constructions of masculinity among a group of South Africa men living with HIV/AIDS; Equality and Sexual orientation in South Africa 2009 – 2011; and Institutional integrity in the tertiary sector; and Sugar daddies, sugar mummies, sugar babies and HIV in contemporary South Africa.
KAREN COHEN -
GILLIAN HUNT - Dr Gillian Hunt is a senior scientist in the Center for HIV and STI at the NICD. The Drug Resistance Surveillance Laboratory team consists of 6 staff and students involved in HIV drug resistance surveillance and research. The laboratory is accredited by the WHO as Regional Drug Resistance Testing Laboratory and performs surveillance testing for South African and some neighboring countries. The team is also involved in a number of clinical research projects and assay development activities.
FATIMA LAHER - Dr Fatima Laher leads the Vaccines Research Centre at the PHRU. The Vaccines Research Centre conducts groundbreaking clinical trials for vaccines that aim to protect against illnesses. Dr Laher is co-chair of multiple trials that hope to find vaccines to prevent people in sub-Saharan Africa, the worst-hit region in the epidemic, from acquiring HIV, and these include HVTN 100, HVTN 120, and the Uhambo efficacy trial.
MOEKETSI MATHE - Dr Mathe has been involved in the HIV field since joining a mobile clinical support team. He was, as a result, involved in the management, both directly and indirectly, of at least 5000 patients. He was also a trainer and facilitator at the RHRU five-day HIV Management course as well as the three-day nurses’ course. He attained his Diploma in HIV Management in 2006, and has since been in private practice with a particular emphasis on HIV management. His area of interest is HIV in youth and women. He places a strong emphasis on preventative medicine and sees every patient encounter as an opportunity to screen and promote good health. Dr Mathe is a board member of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society and a member of the Society’s adult guidelines review committee.
GARY MAARTENS - Gary Maartens is head of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology, University of Cape Town, and a chief specialist physician at Groote Schuur hospital, where he does clinical service in internal medicine and infectious diseases. His main research interests are in therapeutic aspects of HIV-associated tuberculosis, drug-resistant tuberculosis, and antiretroviral therapy in resource-limited settings. He has published over 200 peer reviewed articles, including invited seminars on both tuberculosis and HIV for the Lancet. In 2015 he was awarded a gold medal for outstanding contributions to medical research by the Medical Research Council of South Africa. He was the founding president for the South African College of Clinical Pharmacologists. He has been involved in developing national drug policy guidelines for medicine and primary care; and in international guideline development for the management of HIV and tuberculosis for the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He serves on the Tuberculosis Transformative Science Group of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group, National Institutes of Health.
GLORIA MAIMELA - Dr Gloria Maimela is the Director and Chief of Party for the Health Systems Strengthening (HSS) Project. She joined Wits RHI in November 2013 as a Paediatric HIV/TB Programme Advisor, was promoted to Programme Manager in 2014, HSS Technical Head in 2015 and Director in 2016. Dr Maimela is a medical doctor with extensive experience in Paediatric and adult TB and HIV. She also has experience in managing primary health care clinics and medical wards. Her key achievements during her tenure at Wits RHI include leading HSS to be recognised as one of the successful implementation projects amongst its peer projects with multiple best practices.
COLIN MENEZES - Colin Menezes is an Associate Professor and Academic Head of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is in a Unit Head of a General Internal Medicine Unit, and is a Senior Specialist in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto. In addition to his research interests which include tropical infections, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other opportunistic infections, he has an interest in health law and medical ethics.
YUNUS MOOSA - Professor Moosa is an Associate Professor, Chief Specialist and Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. His work focuses on the care of inpatients and outpatients with complex infectious disease issues. He is involved in bedside teaching and training of medical students, postgraduates at all levels and Infectious Diseases Subspecialists. Professor Moosa has been an invited consultant to the WHOs Special Programme for Tropical Disease Research and Training scientific working group to assist in defining the global tuberculosis agenda and has also been invited by Social and Scientific Systems to assist with developing an assessment tool for South Africa's PEPFAR program. Prof Moosa is the current president of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society.
RUDZANI MULOIWA -
KOGIELEUM NAIDOO - Kogieleum Naidoo, MBCHB, PhD, is head of the Treatment Research Program at the Centre of the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA). She received her MBCHB and PhD from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her research on addressing the challenges of TB-HIV integration has been influential in defining treatment strategies for clinical complications of TB-HIV integration. Her research has been supported by the US Centres for Disease Control, the Newton Fund, the South African Medical Research council, the National Institutes of Health, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Presidents Emergency Fund for Aids Relief. She has authored > 60 peer reviewed publications, and co-authored chapters in several global health books. She was awarded the 2013 Union Scientific Prize awarded by the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease
JEREMY NEL - Jeremy obtained his MBChB at the University of Cape Town and then did his FCP and Infectious Diseases subspecialisation at Wits University. He also obtained a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the Royal College of Physicians in London, and recently completed a Fellowship in Transplant Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
JAMES NUTTALL - Dr Nuttall is a Paediatrician and Paediatric Infectious Diseases Specialist. He is a Senior Specialist and Senior Lecturer at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital and the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Cape Town. He is the current chair of the Child and Adolescent Committee of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society and a Board member of the Society. He is also a member of the Western Cape and National Paediatric Third Line Antiretroviral Therapy Review Committees and the Executive Committee of the Southern African Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases. Current areas of interest include infants, children and adolescents with HIV infection and HIV/TB co-infection including early infant diagnosis, ARV & TB drug dosing and pharmacokinetics, treatment failure and drug resistance. He is also actively involved in antimicrobial stewardship at institutional, provincial, and national level.
MOOSA PATEL - Moosa Patel (MBChB, FCP(SA), MMed(Wits), FRCP(Lond.), PhD(Wits), is Professor of Medicine and Clinical Haematology, Chief Specialist and Academic Head of Clinical Haematology in the Department of Internal Medicine at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital (CHBAH), and the School of Clinical Medicine in the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand. He is involved in research on various aspects of benign and malignant haematology and serves as an investigator, principal investigator and national principal investigator in a number of clinical and drug trials. He has more than 90 scientific publications on various aspects of Medicine and Clinical Haematology. His particular research interests are on Multiple Myeloma, Thrombocytopenia and HIV related benign and malignant haematology (including the lymphomas).
HELEN REES -
THERESA ROSSOUW - After obtaining her MBChB degree at the University of Stellenbosch, she went on to complete an MPhil (Applied Ethics) and MPH (Epidemiology and Biostatistics), as well as a double PhD - Philosophy (Biomedical Ethics) and Medical Immunology. Prof Rossouw is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Medical Immunology at the University of Pretoria where she heads up the HIV Immunopathology laboratory. In her clinical work, she focusses on the comprehensive management of HIV-infected patients with specific emphasis on resistance to antiretroviral therapy. Her research interests encompass a wide spectrum of HIV-related work, spanning from the basic sciences where she predominantly focusses on HIV-associated drug resistance and systemic immune activation, to the clinical and social sciences, where she has been involved in exploring the socio-ethical aspects of HIV/AIDS for more than a decade. She is currently co-investigator on a large study exploring the developmental and immunological consequences of in-utero HIV exposure in uninfected children.
TSHIDI SEBITLOANE - Prof Sebitloane (FCOG/PhD) is Associate Professor and Head of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of KwaZulu Natal. Prof Sebitloane has a special interest in Maternal health and HIV. She is a committee member of • (WHISC- Women’s health and Interactive Sub-committee) - IMPAACT 2010-2012 / ACTG - 2018 to present ; • FIGO (2012 – 2018) – committee on Ethical and Professional Aspects of Human Reproduction and Women’s Health
MARIA SIBANYONI - Maria Sibanyoni is currently working as an Independent Consultant with a professional background of nursing. Her area of interest and expertise is HIV management, programmes development and implementation with an emphasis on Key Population. He skills include project management, research, capacity development and quality assurance. She has experience in providing strategic development, oversight and management of the clinical, community and outreach programmes. She has been instrumental in supporting the South African Government initiative of integrating HIV services to Primary Health Care level of care. She holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Witwatersrand and has been working as a patient advocate to improve the quality of health services in the Inner-city Johannesburg.
NOSISA SIPAMBO - Dr Nosisa Sipambo qualified as a paediatrician in 2001. She is the head of Harriet Shezi Children’s Clinic (HSCC), at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital. HSCC has one of the largest cohorts of HIV-infected children and adolescents, over 7000 to date. HSCC serves as a referral site for surrounding clinics and hospitals for complicated cases and young children requiring Neonatal ART. Additionally, work at HSCC focuses on the management of complex paediatric and adolescent patients including those with opportunistic infections, drug-drug interactions, those who develop side effects on ART and treatment for comorbidities, those with virologic failure on their current regimen and those who have developed resistance, requiring third line ART. To this end, in 2014 we established dedicated Virologic Failure and Resistance clinics at HSCC.
DAVID SPENCER - Dr David Spencer is a specialist physician who started seeing HIV patients formally while completing a two-year Infectious Diseases Fellowship at Case Western Reserve University in the USA, 1988-1990. In 1991 he took over as head of the HIV Clinic of the Johannesburg General Hospital. Dr Spencer was in private practice in Johannesburg from 1997 until 2011. In 2005 he published “The Practice of HIV Medicine”, a primer on HIV care for the doctors of southern Africa. Dr Spencer has published extensively in the field of HIV and was a local lead investigator for several early studies of antiretroviral therapy. Dr Spencer has taught HIV medicine throughout Africa and continues to run a monthly HIV masterclass at the Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg. He was a founding executive member of the southern African HIV Clinicians Society.
CLOETE VAN VUUREN - Dr Cloete van Vuuren is the head of the Department of Internal Medicine at 3 Military Hospital and an associate lecturer in Infectious Diseases at the Department of Internal Medicine, University of the Free State. He was involved with the inception of the roll-out of the HIV Treatment program in the Free State.
ANNEMARIE WENSING - Annemarie M.J. Wensing, MD, PhD attained her MSc and MD at the University of Utrecht. During her post graduate rotations she became involved in clinical HIV research and care. She worked at the HIV-outpatient clinic of the University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht and was subsequently trained as a clinical virologist. She obtained her PhD on Transmission of drug resistant HIV-1. Dr Wensing is the clinical supervisor of the HIV laboratory in the UMC Utrecht which serves as a reference laboratory for HIV resistance testing and performs resistance testing on dried blood spots sent in from areas all over the world. As consultant she advises infectious disease specialists from multiple HIV-centers in the Netherlands. Her research focuses on HIV-entry, HIV reservoirs and on transmission and mechanisms of HIV drug-resistance. She is a principal investigator of several projects on HIV monitoring in RLS settings and of the IciStem program that guides and investigate a potential HIV cure by stem cell transplantation. She is a founding member of the European Society of Antiviral Resistance and coordinates the SPREAD Program, focusing on transmission of HIV-drug resistance, a member of the WHO HIV Drug Resistance ResNet and the IAS-USA mutations panel.