Home / Invited Faculty – speakers

Invited Faculty – speakers

2018 SAHCS conference speakers
SIRAAJ ADAMS -
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.
AVA AVALOS -
MAGS BEKSINSKA - Dr Beksinska is Deputy Executive Director of MRU and has worked in the field of SRH for 20 years and her research has included clinical and operations studies in a broad area of reproductive health with a focus on contraception specifically barrier methods (female and male condoms and diaphragms) for dual protection. She is a member of the UNFPA/WHO FC Technical Review Committee, involved in the development of International Standards and Specifications for condoms, inputted into the SA condom policy and a member of the SA National Condom Forum. Working in KZN for many years she has been involved in many contraception projects that have focused on injectable contraception continuation and side effects such as weight gain.
MARY CARMAN - Mary Carman is a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Witwatersrand and an Associate of the Wits Centre for Ethics (WiCE). Her research interests revolve around emotions and, prior to joining Wits as a lecturer in 2018, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the interdisciplinary Swiss Centre for Affective Sciences (CISA) in Geneva, Switzerland. In addition to her work on emotions, she is the principle investigator in a collaborative research project between WiCE and members of the Wits RHI on ethical requirements for clinical research, with a particular focus on informed consent. She teaches a postgraduate module in bioethics and runs the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society Ethics & Policy mailing list.
SERGIO CARMONA - Dr Sergio Carmona is a consultant haematologist at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, where he manages one of the largest routine HIV virology laboratories in the region, providing Early Infant Diagnostic PCR, HIV drug resistance testing and over 80 000 HIV viral loads per month. He supports HIV stream of National Priority Programme. He has had leadership positions in the organisation. In 2017 he was the acting Executive for Academic Affairs, Research and Quality Assurance, he was the pathologist adviser to the CEO at Executive Committee of the National Health Laboratory Service from 2012-15. The NHLS is an over 7000 employee organisation, has a network of 268 laboratories nationally that provides diagnostic pathology for 80% of South Africans. In 2010 Dr Carmona was seconded to the programme for the implementation new viral load testing platforms in 17 labs across South Africa this has successfully reached over 4.5 million viral load results per annum. He is interested in the areas of early infant diagnosis, HIV drug resistance, HPV genotyping and HIV related Monitoring and Evaluation using large datasets to inform guidelines and health policies.
KAREN COHEN - Dr Karen Cohen is a clinical pharmacologist and family physician in the Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Medicine, University of Cape Town, South Africa. She leads a research group focusing on safety of antiretroviral and antitubercular medicines. Her interests include programmatic pharmacovigilance strategies to inform policy, drug induced liver injury, antiretroviral therapeutic drug monitoring and antiretroviral drug interactions.
TALITHA CROWLEY - Dr Talitha Crowley is a lecturer at the Department of Nursing and Midwifery at Stellenbosch University. She is a professional nurse with an interest in primary health care and has been involved in several projects that focused on the education of professional nurses to prescribe and manage patients on antiretroviral treatment (ART) since 2010. She has research expertise in instrument development and mixed-methods research. Her current research is focused on exploring how HIV-positive adolescents can be supported to self-manage their illness.
NATASHA DAVIES - Natasha Davies established one of Southern Africa’s first safer conception services, based at a busy primary healthcare clinic in Johannesburg. Using lessons learnt from this demonstration project, she now leads a team which is expanding this service into nine inner-city primary healthcare facilities to support individuals and couples living with HIV who want to plan a safe pregnancy in achieving their reproductive goals with minimal HIV risk.
LAUREN DE KOCK -
SINEAD DELANY-MORETLWE -
JANAN DIETRICH -
SIPHO DLAMINI -
AMEENA GOGA - Ameena Goga is currently a researcher at the South African Medical Research Council, and a paediatrician within the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Pretoria. She has a Masters degree in Mother and Child Health, a Masters degree in Epidemiology, a Certificate in Integrative Medicine, a PhD in Paediatrics, a Certificate in Paediatric Pulmonology and an MPhil in Paediatric Pulmonology. Between 2001 and 2005 she worked at the National Department of Health in policy and programmes. Her research focuses on improving mother and child health in the context of HIV.
SUE GOLDSTEIN -
ERIC HEFER -
LUCAS HERMANS -
JULIET HOUGHTON - Juliet Houghton is the Country Director for CHIVA South Africa, an NGO that works to build capacity and skills of health workers in South Africa to assist the government’s HIV response to children and adolescents. She is an HIV Nurse Specialist with experience in managing HIV-infected children and adolescents over the past 25 years. She is also a social anthropologist, having graduated with a distinction in the social anthropology of childhood and child development from Brunel University in London in 2005. Juliet is actively involved in the development of resources and guidelines in South Africa, including co-authorship of the KZN Step-by-Step Guide for Paediatric ART, and is a contributor for the SA HIV Clinicians Society on Paediatric and Adolescent HIV management guidelines and toolkits. She is passionate about adolescent health and engagement and actively works to develop and implement new and innovative programmes to better treat and prevent HIV in this key population.
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.
BENJAMIN KAGINA -
THANDEKA KHOZA - Dr Khoza is currently the Program Manager for the WRHI Sex Worker Male Clients USAID program and the Project Manager for the North Star Alliance PEPFAR project. Her main focus is on HIV prevention and treatment among key populations, particularly sex workers, in Southern and Eastern Africa. She is part of the South African National Department of Health’s Technical Working Group for the National PrEP program, where she oversees PrEP implementation at key high transmission area sites. She also serves as the Senior Clinical Advisor for the AIDS FONDS- Hands OFF project - which is a sex worker peer educator led program; aimed at increasing access to healthcare, dispelling stigma and stemming violence against sex workers in the SADC regions.
FIONA KRITZINGER - Dr Kritzinger obtained her MBCHB cum laude and was awarded the Chancellor’s medal from Stellenbosch University in 1999. She completed a Master in Medicine (Paediatrics) cum laude in 2006 at Stellenbosch University. She completed her FCP (Paed) in 2006 and was awarded the Robert McDonald medal by the College of Medicine of South Africa (CMSA). Following this she commenced her Paediatric Pulmonology subspecialist training at Stellenbosch University under the guidance of Prof Robert Gie and obtained a Certificate in Paediatric Pulmonology from the CMSA in 2010. With the support of a SKYE scholarship she was able to complete another fellowship in General Paediatric Pulmonology and Paediatric Lung Transplantation at the Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Canada during 2008 and 2009. She returned to Cape Town in 2010 and established a Paediatric Pulmonology and Sleep service at Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital. Her interests include Cystic Fibrosis, Airway abnormalities, lung transplantation, interventional bronchoscopy and sleep-related breathing disorders. She serves on the executive of the Paediatric Management Group (PMG) since 2016 and she is a part time lecturer in the Department of Paediatrics at Stellenbosch University.
TENDESAYI KUFA-CHAKEZHA - Tendesayi is a Senior Epidemiologist at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases’ Centre for HIV and STIs. In this role she designs and implements relevant surveillance and research activities and mentors staff and students. A medical doctor by training, she holds a Master’s in Public Health (major in Epidemiology) from the University of California at Berkeley and a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Amsterdam. Over the past 16 years, she has held different positions in HIV prevention, care and treatment programmes, academia and research. She is also an honorary lecturer in the School of Public Health at the University of the Witwatersrand. Her main research interests are in the epidemiology and prevention of HIV, STIs and HIV -associated TB and has authored several peer- reviewed papers as well as conference papers in these areas. Current activities include biomarker- based incidence estimations, evaluation of rapid HIV test performance in community and facility based settings, evaluation of CD4 count recovery within the national ART programme, the sentinel surveillance of sexually transmitted infections and estimating trends syphilis burden using centralised laboratory data.
RANMINI KULARATNE
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.
LIMAKATSO LEBINA - Dr Limakatso Lebina is a Director at the Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU), University of the Witwatersrand, managing multiple clinical trials as well as the implementation of programs on HIV and TB prevention and treatment. She has recently completed projects on HIV self-screening feasibility and acceptability, as well as TB, HIV and silicosis in the mining sector in Southern Africa. Dr. Lebina has been working on Medical Male circumcision programs since 2010, and managed five programs that reached over 100 000 circumcisions. She has been a presenter on several radio and TV programs on advocacy for HIV/AIDS treatment and Medical Male Circumcision for the prevention of HIV.
RICHARD LESSELLS - Dr Lessells is an infectious diseases specialist and group leader at the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He did his clinical training in infectious diseases and internal medicine in Edinburgh and Nottingham, and his research training at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He has been working in KwaZulu-Natal since 2007. He currently works with the CAPRISA Advanced Clinical Care Program to strengthen capacity for clinical management of complex HIV and TB disease in KZN. His research group at KRISP is focused on understanding the epidemiology of drug-resistant infections (particularly HIV and TB) and developing new tools and strategies to prevent the emergence and transmission of drug-resistant infections.
LEON LEVIN - Dr Leon Levin MBBCh(Wits), FCPaed(SA), DTM&H is a paediatrician who has been treating HIV infected infants, children and adolescents for the past 22 years. For the past 10 years he has been Head of Paediatric HIV Programmes at Right to Care NGO. He was the Chairman of the Paediatric Subcommittee of the SA HIV Clinicians Society from 1999-2011 and was the convenor of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society Paediatric Antiretroviral Guidelines 2000, 2002 and 2005 and Co-convenor for the 2009 guidelines. He is on the SA DOH Paediatric and Adolescent ART Guidelines Committees and the Paediatric 3rd line ART Committee for the SA DOH. He founded and runs the South African HIV Clinicians Society Paediatric Discussion Group which is an Internet based forum for clinicians to discuss and learn about problems in paediatric patients with HIV. He has given numerous lectures and HIV viral resistance workshops throughout Africa. His Current areas of interest include infants, children and adolescents with HIV infection, treatment failure and drug resistance and HIV disclosure to adolescents.
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.
SHABIR MADHI - Shabir Madhi is Professor of Vaccinology and Director of the MRC Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit at University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He is also a Research Chair in Vaccine Preventable Diseases for Department of Science and Technology/National Research Foundation. He has been involved in vaccine-related epidemiological and clinical development studies for the past 21 years. His research focusses on the leading causes of pneumonia, diarrhoea and neonatal sepsis. Most recently, his research focus has expanded to reducing morbidity and mortality due to infectious causes during early infancy, with a specific focus on maternal immunization as an intervention. He has authored over 350 publications in the field of childhood vaccines, pneumonia, neonatal sepsis and maternal vaccination; including on the impact of HIV-infection and HIV-exposure on vaccine immunogenicity and efficacy.
SAFIA MAHOMED - Safia Mahomed is a senior lecturer in the Department of Jurisprudence, at UNISAs College of Law. She is an admitted attorney in the North Gauteng High Court and practiced as an attorney until the end of 2011. In 2012 she began her academic career and completed her Master’s degree which focused on Biotechnology Law, through UNISA. In 2018 she completed her Doctoral degree at the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand. Her doctoral thesis focused on the development of an ethico-legal framework for the regulation of biobanks in South Africa. The outcomes of Safia’s thesis are currently under review for national use, by the Department of Health. Safia is the Chair of UNISAs Biotechnology and Medical law Flagship; a member of UNESCO’s International Forum of Bioethics Teachers; a member of the Biobanks Ethics Committee at the University of the Witwatersrand; and a member of UNISAs College of Law, Ethics Committee. She has published and presented locally and internationally.
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.
PETER MANYIKE -
DESMOND MARTIN - Prof Des Martin, MBBCh(Wits), MMed (Wits),FCPath(SA), DTM&H(Wits), DPH(Wits). For the past 35 years has been involved in the field of HIV medicine at various levels. These include: Past President of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society from 1998 to 2008. Former Editor of the Southern African Journal of HIV Medicine Formerly Deputy Director of National Institute for Virology Formerly Convenor of Examiners for the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa Chair of Basic Sciences Track 13th International Aids Conference Durban 2000 Visiting Professor Johns Hopkins Hospital Baltimore 1998 Professor in the Department of Clinical Virology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria.
GRAEME MEINTJES - Graeme Meintjes is a Professor of Medicine and SARChI Chair of Poverty-related Infections at the University of Cape Town. He is an Infectious Diseases Physician who undertakes consultant clinical work at Khayelitsha and Groote Schuur Hospitals. His research focuses on the clinical conditions affecting patients with advanced HIV disease including disseminated HIV-associated tuberculosis, the tuberculosis-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (TB-IRIS) and cryptococcal meningitis. His group also investigates drug-resistant tuberculosis. He has been the PI or local PI of several clinical trials and conducts observational cohort studies that address questions related to disease pathogenesis. Recently, he was PI of the EDCTP-funded PredART trial that demonstrated that prednisone was effective and safe for the prevention of TB-IRIS in patients at high-risk starting ART. He has contributed to the development of management guidelines for HIV, TB and cryptococcal meningitis at a provincial and national level and World Health Organization Guideline Development Groups.
JOHN MELLORS - Dr John W. Mellors is a Professor of Medicine and Chief of Infectious Diseases at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr Mellors serves as a Member of Scientific Advisory Board at Gilead Sciences Inc. and the HIV Scientific Advisory Board of Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc. He also serves as a Member of the US Public Health Service Panel on Clinical Practices for the Treatment of HIV Infection and the International AIDS Society-USA Panel on HIV drug resistance. Dr Mellors serves as an Executive Director of the HIV Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), which provides comprehensive primary care and access to clinical trials for HIV-infected individuals. Dr. Mellors also served as a Members of Clinical Advisory Board at Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
GESINE MEYER-RATH - Gesine Meyer-Rath, MD, PhD, is a medical doctor and health economist working on the economics of infectious disease interventions in low- and middle-income settings. She is an Assistant Professor at the Center for Global Health and Development, Boston University, US, and lives in Johannesburg where she works at the Health Economics and Epidemiology Research Office (HE2RO), a collaboration between Boston University and the University of the Witwatersrand. Her focus lies on modeling methods for economic evaluation and translating research into recommendations for public policy. Her work involves economic analyses of PrEP, self-testing, and novel antiretrovirals as well as budget impact analyses for national ART programmes. She is the lead modeller on the South African HIV Investment Case, an ongoing government-led exercise to find the most cost-effective mix of interventions against HIV in South Africa.
SANDILE MHLONGO -
NONO MKHIZA -
COCEKA MNYANI - Dr Coceka Nandipha Mnyani is an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, and also trained in a Fetal-Maternal Medicine subspecialty. She has worked in the public service for 20 years, and has been involved in policy development and implementation of PMTCT guidelines. Dr Mnyani is currently a senior specialist and lecturer in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, and the University of the Witwatersrand. Her main areas of interest are in reducing HIV-related maternal morbidity and mortality, and prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
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.
JADE MOGAMBERY - Dr Jade Mogambery is a specialist physician and infectious disease specialist at Ngwelezana Hospital. She completed her training in Infectious diseases in Grey’s Hospital in 2014 and then worked as an ID physician in Pietermartzburg where she was involved in outreach to local district facilities. She relocated to Ngwelezana Hospital in 2016 and currently works in general medicine. She provides outreach for general medicine and is helping to expand HIV specialist care to Northern KZN. Her interests include the management of complex HIV cases and opportunistic infections, and antibiotic stewardship.
ZAINAB MOHAMED - Dr Zainab Mohamed MBChB MMed (Rad Onc). Head of Clinical Unit, Radiation Oncology, Groote Schuur Hospital, University of Cape Town. I attained my MBChB at the University of Cape Town in 1992 and graduated with an MMed in Radiation Oncology from the University of Stellenbosch in 2004. My career as a Clinical and Radiation Oncologist started at Groote Schuur Hospital in February 2005. I am responsible for the Lymphoma and Kaposi’s sarcoma clinics and provide a radiotherapy service to Clinical Hematology (myeloma clinic and stem cell transplant unit). My research interests include HIV-associated malignancies and lymphomas.
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.
MICHELLE MOORHOUSE - Dr Moorhouse has dedicated most of her career to the management of HIV and has worked across different sectors in different countries. Michelle joined Wits RHI in 2014. She currently serves on several Technical Working Groups and Committees, advising the National Department of Health (NDoH) in HIV management and care. She has also been instrumental in the development of several guidelines for the NDoH as well as the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society. Michelle is an active member of the Society, and is the volunteer Editor of the Southern African Journal of HIV Medicine.
NDIVIWE MPHOTHULO - Dr Mphothulo holds an MB CHB degree, a Diploma in HIV management from the Colleges of Medicine, a Master of Public Health Degree, and a Master of Business Leadership (MBL). Currently a Board member of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society, a Representative of Rural Doctors Association of Southern Africa (RuDASA) in North West Province, and was South African 2017 Rural Health conference organizing committee chairperson and conference chairperson. He has worked at various clinics at Taung Sub-District for 5 years and at Taung District Hospital’s TB unit for 14 years and MDR-TB unit for 9 years, has also been running a GP practice since 2004. At Taung District Hospital he was part of the first wellness clinic rolling out ARVs in 2004, and he was part of establishing the Decentralised MDR-TB unit in 2009 which serves the whole Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District. In recognition of efforts in combating challenges in rural health, Dr Mphothulo has received the following accolades: 2013 Service Excellence Award from the Health MEC, for best performing Doctors in North West Province; 2014 Community Medical Builder Award from the South African Medical Association Trade Union, 2015 South African Rural Doctor of the Year from RuDASA, 2017 Best performing MDR-TB doctor in North West Province from Chief Director (HAST).
GLORIA MTHOMBENI -
MUHANGWI MULAUDZI - Dr Mulaudzi qualified as a medical doctor at Medunsa (Medical University of Southern Africa) in 1990. He has been managing and treating HIV/AIDS since 1991 and was the first clinician to treat HIV/AIDS in the mining region in Rustenburg, NW Province and the surrounding areas. He is a founder member of the Southern African Clinicians Society. Dr Mulaudzi has given presentations on HIV / Viral Hepatitis & Co-morbidities and was recently invited by the Cipla HIV Academy to present on the topic: Viral Hepatitis / HIV Co-infections.
PAULA MUNDERI - Dr. Paula Munderi is Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC). Prior to joining IAPAC, Dr. Munderi worked for 15 years as a senior clinical scientist based at the Uganda Virus Research Institute, where she established a program in HIV Care Research, caring for several thousand PLHIV participants of clinical research trial cohorts. She was a lead investigator on several multisite studies on HIV treatment strategy in Africa including the DART trial and the START trial. Before that, Dr. Munderi was a Medical Officer at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, contributing to normative guidance on HIV treatment and to policy on access to HIV medicines in resource-limited settings. Dr. Munderi has served on several scientific advisory panels and continues to serve as an advisor on HIV control policy to Uganda’s Ministry of Health. Dr. Munderi is a graduate of Makerere University School of Medicine in Kampala and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (UK).
LANDON MYER -
JEAN NACHEGA - Jean Nachega, MD, PhD, MPH, FRCP, DTM&H, is a Professor Extraordinary and Director of the Centre for Infectious Diseases at Stellenbosch University Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Cape Town, South Africa. He is also an Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at University of Pittsburgh, USA; Adjunct Associate Professor of Epidemiology and International Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA He has >25-year experience of research, teaching, and patient care, including planning, design, implementing, and monitoring clinical trials, cohort studies and programs to optimize HIV and related co-morbidities outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa. He has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed publications, including in top-tier journals such as The Lancet, JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, PlosMedicine and JIAS. He is an Editorial Board member of the Journal of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (JAIDS) and had hoc member of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) AIDS Clinical Studies and Epidemiology (ACE) Study Section. He has served as the Principal Investigator on several research and/or training grants, including some funded by NIH, US President Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in Africa (PEPFAR), The European Developing Countries Clinical Trial Partnership (EDCTP), and The UK Wellcome Trust. He is Clinical Research Site (CRS) Lead Investigator for HIV studies in adults of the US NIH AIDS Clinical Trial Group (ACTG) Clinical Trial Unit (CTU) at Stellenbosch University. He is an ad hoc expert consultant for Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; US Centers for Diseases Control & Preventions (CDC); World Health Organization (WHO), HIV Department, Geneva; as well as a member-elect of the South African Academy of Sciences.
JENNY NASH - Dr Nash is a South African born and trained doctor, who has been working in the public sector since 1998. She worked at Mseleni hospital for 10 years, a rural district hospital in northern KwaZulu Natal. While working at the hospital she was part of the team that co-ordinated the first district based antiretroviral program in KwaZulu Natal. While at Mseleni she completed her Family Medicine specialist training, and was awarded the Diploma in HIV management. In 2008 she moved to the Eastern Cape, and started working in the primary health care clinics in the Great Kei local municipality. She was responsible for co-ordinating the many vertically implemented programs at the clinic, and for integrating and expanding the antiretroviral program into the primary health care clinics, which had been provided by local NGOs. In January 2015 she joined the Amathole District Clinical Specialist Team as the specialist family physician. She visits and supports the 12 district hospitals, TB hospital, chronic psychiatric hospital, 5 community health clinics and over 150 primary health care clinics in the Amathole district. In 2014 she received the RuDASA Rural Doctor of the year award, and in 2015 received the SAMA Border Branch Local Hero award. She is passionate about integrated, quality primary health care, and strives to improve clinical skills amongst nurses, clinical associates and doctors.
MONIQUE NIJHUIS -
ADAM NOSWORTHY - Adam Nosworthy qualified at Wits, specialized at Wits and subsequently chose medical oncology as a super-specialization. He worked in the medical oncology unit from 2003 until 2011 when he took up full-time private practice at the Donald Gordon Medical Centre, previously having done RWOPS there. His interests are GI and Thoracic malignancies and he developed a passion for treatment of HIV associated cancers while at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, including the social aspect of treating already immunocompromised patients and how the stigma of a “double hit” to these patients influenced the overall outcomes due to avoidance of seeking help. Adam is also extremely buoyed by the increase in non-toxic systemic treatments for cancers which allow treating cancers which were previously virtually impossible to manage.
JAMES NUTTALL - Dr James 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.
CATHERINE ORRELL - Catherine Orell is a clinical pharmacologist and HIV physician from the DTHF (UCT) who has been working with HIV-infected patients in clinical trials and observational cohorts since 1997. Her particular interests are in HIV pharmacology, adherence/retention in care and resistance to ART.
REMCO PETERS - Prof Remco Peters is an expert clinician, epidemiologist and researcher in HIV, TB and STIs. He works as clinical programme specialist at the Anova Health Institute and is affiliated as extraordinary professor at the Departments of Medical Microbiology of the University of Pretoria and the Maastricht University Medical Centre. Prof Peters is a key opinion leader who raises awareness of the burden and unmet need for STI care in Africa. His research focuses on achieving STI control through improved clinical management, epidemiological knowledge and public health strategies.
ASHENDRI PILLAY - Dr Ashendri Pillay is a Paediatric Infectious Diseases Specialist in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at King Edward VIII Hospital affiliated to the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine. She is a member of the institutions’ IPC and Antibiotic Stewardship committee; her research interests include medical management of abdominal TB and drug-drug interactions between anti-tuberculosis and antiretroviral therapy in paediatrics.
HELENA RABIE - Dr Helena Rabie is a specialist in the field of paediatric infectious diseases and an associate professor of paediatrics at Tygerberg Hospital and University of Stellenbosch. She has extensive experience in managing HIV-infected children and children with tuberculosis and has been part of several research protocols on best practice treatment strategies.
ELLIOT RAIZES - Dr. Elliot Raizes is an infectious disease clinician with over 30 years’ experience in the clinical management of HIV. He has worked at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) since 2017 and is presently the adult treatment team lead for the HIV Care and Treatment branch in the Division of Global HIV and Tuberculosis. In that role he also serves as primary HIV technical advisor to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) with primary focus on ARV optimization, HIV drug resistance, and quality of ART programs supported by PEPFAR. He is a member of the WHO HIV ResNet Steering group and has served as a member of the WHO ART guidelines development group for the past three updates.
DENASHA REDDY - Dr Denasha Reddy is an Infectious Diseases specialist at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa. She completed her undergraduate medical degree with honours at UCT in 2008, specialization in Internal Medicine at the Wits in 2015, and sub-specialization in Infectious Diseases at UCT in 2017. She was awarded the 2016 Southern African HIV Clinicians’ Society Medal. Dr Reddy has published peer-reviewed research arising from her masters’ thesis on lymph node pathology in patients with HIV, serves as a reviewer for IUTLD, and is currently involved in clinical outcomes research on patients with tuberculosis and discordant genotypic rifampicin resistance results. She recently completed her Diploma in Tropical Medicine & Hygiene in Peru.
HELEN REES -
DOUGLAS RICHMAN - Dr Douglas Richman received his A.B. from Dartmouth College and went on to receive his M.D. at Stanford University where he completed his residency. He was a Research Associate in the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases at the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Clinical Fellow in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Beth Israel Hospital and Children’s Hospital Medical Center of Harvard. Dr Richman joined the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in 1976 and is currently Professor of Pathology and Medicine, and holds the Florence Seeley Riford Chair in AIDS Research. He is Director of the Center for AIDS Research at UCSD and of the Research Center for AIDS and HIV Infections at the San Diego VA Healthcare System where he attends in infectious diseases and is Chief and Director of the Clinical Virology Laboratory. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association of Physicians, the American Clinical and Climatological Association, and the Infectious Disease Society of America. He is a member of the NIH AIDS Vaccine Research Committee. He has focused his investigation on HIV disease and pathogenesis for the past 20 years. His laboratory was the first to identify HIV drug resistance. The lab joined two others in identifying latently infected CD4 cells as the obstacle to eradication of HIV with potent antiretroviral therapy.
CAROL RUFFELL - Ms. Carol Ruffell is the country lead for Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), a not-for-profit research and development (R&D) initiative that seeks to address global public health needs. She is an experienced executive within the pharmaceutical industry, and holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy from Rhodes University and Master’s in Public Health from the University of Liverpool.
ANDREW SCHEIBE - Dr Andrew Scheibe is a key populations HIV and infectious disease specialist. He has been working in the field of harm reduction and substance use for the past eight years. Dr Scheibe is also experienced in capacity building of health workers and process consulting for HIV and viral hepatitis programmes. He is a senior technical advisor for TB HIV Care and has research affiliations with the University of Pretoria’s Department of Family Medicine and the Urban Futures Centre at the Durban University of Technology.
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
ROBERT SHAFER -
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.
CHARLOTTE SRIRUTTAN - Charlotte Sriruttan is a clinical microbiologist who has worked in public and private sector routine diagnostic laboratory services since qualifying in 2009: the past 4 years with a specific focus on fungal laboratory diagnostics and education, public health and implementation science. Currently she is the study co-ordinator for the cryptococcal screening programme at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in Johannesburg, where she leads a project team of five grant-funded research staff. She is affliated to the NICD mycology reference laboratory which has extensive experience in phenotypic, non-culture based assays and molecular mycology diagnostic techniques. More recently she asisted with the development of an online mycology course in direct microscopy at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.
DAVID STEAD - Dr Stead is an Infectious diseases specialist Physician, who completed his undergraduate, and then specialist training at Groote Schuur hospital, Cape Town, in 2013. He started an Infectious diseases unit within the departments of Medicine at Frere and Cecilia Makiwane hospitals, in East London since 2015. He is integrally involved in the provincial antimicrobial stewardship and drug-resistant TB programs. His main research interests are opportunistic infections in HIV, TB diagnostics, antimicrobial stewardship, and novel HIV testing strategies.
JULIA TURNER - Julia Turner is a Paediatric and Adolescent Medical Advisor at Right to Care NPO where she supports Department of Health through clinical and technical health systems strengthening aimed at reaching 90 90 90 targets, including training health care workers and assisting with special adolescent ARV clinics. She will be presenting at the Global HIV Clinical Forum in Amsterdam in July 2018 on the use of integrase inhibitors in HIV positive patients with resistance. She has a passion for helping HIV positive teenagers with adherence, disclosure and the countless psychosocial challenges they face.
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.
MICHELLE VENTER - Michelle Venter is an Infectious Diseases consultant in the Department of Infectious Diseases at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital. Her specific interests include gut microbiome dysbiosis in the setting of retroviral disease and the impact of dysbiosis on conditions such as pneumonia and myocardial infarction.
FRANCOIS VENTER - Professor Venter is the Deputy Executive Director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute and a lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is also an honorary consultant at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital. Professor Venter has published several operational research studies, and is currently principal investigator on several large antiretroviral dose reduction studies. He is also an active participant on numerous guidelines, policy and conference committees.
MARIJE VERSTEEG-MOJANAGA - Marije Versteeg-Mojanaga been at the helm of the Rural Health Advocacy Project (RHAP) since its inception in 2009. Marije’s expertise lies in health advocacy and social justice, organisational development and governance, coalition-building and partnerships for social change. She is currently working on issues relating to fair priority-setting of healthcare resource allocations, and the ethics of healthcare worker advocacy. Marije holds a Masters Degree in Culture, Organisation and Management from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and is studying towards a Masters in Applied Ethics at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She has spearheaded the development of the two flagship programmes of the RHAP, which are The Voice Project (Building a critical mass of advocacy competent healthcare workers) and the Rural-Proofing Policy and Budgetting Programme. Marije has authored peer-reviewed and popular publications, provides regular presentations on issues affecting human rights and health in public fora and represents RHAP in a number of civil society coalitions, committees and government bodies. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the Rural Doctors Association of South Africa, the Working Group on South African Values and Ethics for Universal Health Care (SAVE-UHC) and represents RHAP on the Treatment Action Campaign National Council.
ARNE VON DELFT - Arne von Delft had just started specializing in Hematological Pathology to pursue his dream of becoming a stem cell researcher, when his wife, Dalene, also a doctor, was diagnosed with occupational pulmonary multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). What followed was a harrowing 19 months of treatment, during which she had to make some potentially life-threatening decisions in an attempt to preserve her hearing and career. Dalene had optimal access to all forms of care, including very fortuitous use of the first new TB drug in 42 years, bedaquiline, on South Africa’s short-lived compassionate use program. Arne also experienced the horror of dealing with drug-resistant TB, as a supporting husband and clinician, but also as a contact and patient: he was diagnosed with probable primary pleural MDR-TB two months after Dalene, but fortunately recovered without active treatment. A subsequent attempt to treat this latent infection was discontinued after six weeks due to progressive fluoroquinolone-induced tendon damage with risk of Achilles tendon rupture. Dalene and Arne consider themselves extremely fortunate to have recovered so well from this debilitating disease, but the vast majority of other DR-TB patients are not nearly as lucky. They subsequently co-founded “TB Proof”, a TB prevention education and awareness community that seeks to destigmatize TB and empower health workers and students to protect themselves and their patients more effectively against TB. As TB patient/physician advocates, they also campaign for more effective, safer and equitable treatment options on various national and international platforms. Arne subsequently changed his field of specialization and is currently a registrar in Public Health Medicine (MMed) at the University of Cape Town (UCT) under the employment of Western Cape Government Health (WCGH). One of his key projects is to assist with the development and implementation of Catch & Match, an integrated model of community-based care, featuring an innovative mHealth solution linked to the Provincial Health Data Centre.
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.
MICHELLE WONG - Professor Michelle Wong is a Consultant Physician and Clinical Head: Division of Pulmonology, Department of Medicine, Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital. Prof Wong is also Academic Head: Division of Pulmonology, School of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand. Prof Wong does undergraduate and postgraduate training at the University of the Witwatersrand, and enjoys clinical aspects of Medicine and Pulmonology, and teaching.