SASTM Post-Pandemic Travel Health Update

Dr Day completed her training as a specialist physician in 2020 and is currently completing her two year fellowship in Allergology and Clinical Immunology.

She is an experienced physician with an interest in allergy and infectious diseases. Dr Day is also passionate about research and has presented at the UCT Medicine Research Day, the HIV Clinicians Society Conference, and the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 2021 Congress.

Professor Lucille Blumberg is an infectious diseases and clinical microbiology specialist at 'Right to Care'. She has honorary appointments at the National institute for Communicable Diseases and the Universities of Stellenbosch and Pretoria (Faculty of Veterinary Science).
Her special interests are in tropical diseases, travel medicine, malaria, the viral
haemorrhagic fevers, rabies and One Health.
She is a member of a number of International and South African expert Groups including the National Rabies Advisory Group and the National Malaria Advisory Group.

Dr Albie de Frey
Obtained medical degree from the University of Pretoria in 1983 followed by Diplomas in Primary Emergency Care and Anaesthesiology from the South African College of Medicine and a Diploma in Travel Medicine from the University of Glasgow and Certificate in Travel Health from the International Society of Travel Medicine. Fellow of the Faculty of Travel Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow, Scotland and the Faculty of Travel Medicine of the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine, Australia.
Senior Honorary Lecturer in the School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand and instrumental in the development of WITS’s Travel Medicine Course developed in conjunction with James Cook University, Townsville, Australia. Lectures to 2nd and 5th year medical students at several universities and the DTM&H Class at WITS.
Member of the WHO Expert Roster on Travel Health and Founding member of Worldwide Travel Medical Consultants and Director of the Travel Doctor Corporate in South Africa.

Prof Nicolette du Plessis, a registered Paediatric Infectious Diseases Specialist, is Associate Professor and Head of the Paediatric Infectious Diseases Division of the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Pretoria and Kalafong hospital.

Her interests and research in the field of Paediatric Infectious Diseases lead to her PhD that focused on early HIV diagnosis and treatment. Other interests include Immunology, Allergology, Travel medicine, Tuberculosis, immunization and vaccine-preventable diseases, outbreak investigation, and Antibiotic stewardship.

Her recent research projects focus on paediatric COVID-19 and HIV.

She is currently the President of FIDSSA and she serves on numerous advisory boards both locally and nationally.

Gavin graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand Medical School in South Africa in 1991 and after completing his internship he worked in the UK for 5 years in A&E and anaesthesia, successfully passing the FRCA.

He worked on cruise ships for almost 4 years as a ship’s doctor until 2002 when he took a year away from clinical medicine to complete an MBA at The University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business. After completing his MBA he worked in the pharmaceutical industry in South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa until 2011 when he returned to clinical medicine.

He has participated in short term surgical programs for Operation Smile for almost 10 years and has been the Regional Medical Officer for Operation Smile, Sub-Saharan Africa since 2019. He is currently working in private practice as an anaesthesiologist in Cape Town, South Africa and is an associate of Anaesthesia Cape Town (ACT).

Dr. Aisha Khatib (MD, CCFP(EM), CTravMed, DTM&H, CTropMed) is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Family & Community Medicine at the University of Toronto.

She trained in both family and emergency medicine from the University of Toronto and McGill University, and recently completed an Infectious Diseases fellowship in Clinical Tropical Medicine at the University of Toronto.

She holds specialization in Travel and Tropical Medicine, having completed a certification in Travel Medicine from the University of Otago in New Zealand, and a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the Gorgas Course in Peru. She has worked abroad doing HIV & TB work in India, in maternal and infant health through Himalayan Healthcare in Nepal accompanied by National Geographic, and also in Haiti during the cholera outbreak after the earthquake in 2010.

She also worked as a Travel Doctor in New Zealand with Worldwise Traveller’s Health for several years before moving back to Canada. She is currently the Clinical Director of Travel Medicine at Medcan, the President-Elect of the Alberta Association of Travel Health Professionals, and a Councilor on the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene Clinical Group. She is also Co-Chair of the ASTMH Update Course in Clinical Tropical Medicine and Travelers' Health and a Councilor on the ISTM Responsible Travel Interest Group. Her recent research focuses on the safety of air travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr Rochelle Lee completed her MBCHB at the University of Pretoria in 2010.
She joined the emergency department in 2014 at Unitas Hospital in Centurion, completing her Certificate in Travel Medicine in 2016 and DipPEC in 2017.

Dr Lee has a special interest in Malaria for which she has attended and participated in international conferences.
She joined Zuid Afrikaans Hospital in 2020, working in their covid clinic, treating only emergency covid patients. She was also seen in the MNet documentary about covid at the hospital - zero to zero.

In March 2022, after the birth of her second daughter, she joined a private general and travel practice, but continues working locum shifts at Unitas and Zuid-Afrikaans Hospital.

Dr Morena Makhoana joined Biovac in 2004 and holds the role of Chief Executive Officer.

He is a member of the Board and the Biovac Executive team. Prior to his CEO role at Biovac he held the role of Deputy CEO and prior to that of Medical Affairs Director for Biovac.

His mandate is to realise the objective of building vaccine manufacturing capacity in Southern Africa.

Biovac was established to revive vaccine manufacturing capabiity in South Africa. Africa has limited capability in human vaccine
manufacture. Its vision and mission is to establish sustainable world class international African vaccine manufacturing capability by contributing to protecting life through the development, manufacture and supply of much needed and vaccines.

During his tenure Biovac has secured three successful technology transfers with global pharmaceutical companies such as Sanofi and Pfizer that has allowed the company to grow its staff complement from 24 to over 400.

Morena is a medical graduate from the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa. He has participated in numerous executive and business courses at both Harvard and Stanford Universities. He serves on a number of committees within the vaccine industry and serves as a board member of other healthcare and non-healthcare companies.

Koketso Makua is a medical scientist and holds a MSc degree in Medical Virology from Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (SMU). In 2018, he joined the Centre for HIV and STI (CHIVSTI) at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) as an intern medical scientist. After completing his internship, he continued to work at CHIVSTI for a year and in 2021 he joined the Polio laboratory in the Centre for Vaccines and Immunology, where he is currently based. His role is molecular characterization of poliovirus from acute flaccid paralysis and environmental surveillance in the southern African region as part of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). His research interest includes poliovirus whole genome sequencing and wastewater surveillance epidemiology of hepatitis A virus, Hepatitis E virus and poliovirus.

Marc Mendelson is a UK-trained infectious diseases specialist who’s pandemic experience dates back to 1982 as a medical student, seeing the first HIV patients at St Mary’s Hospital London. He moved to New York and then to UCT in 2001 to work on TB and in 2009, was part of the WHO group that developed clinical guidelines for the management of the H1N1 Influenza pandemic.

In 2011, he co-founded the South African Antibiotic Stewardship Programme with Adrian Brink, beginning a decade spent working to mitigate the pandemic of antibiotic resistance in South Africa and abroad. In 2020 he was part of the COVID-19 pandemic response at Groote Schuur Hospital and was clinical lead for the national MAC on COVID-19.

Dr Miller is a consultant in Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in private practice in Johannesburg.
He is the member of the microbiology, virology and cell culture team at Lancet Laboratories.
Dr Miller is a graduate of the Witwatersrand Medical School, Johannesburg.

Salim Parker is a general practitioner based in Cape Town and immediate Past-President of the South African Society of Travel Medicine. He is the co-director of the Cape Town GeoSentinel site and currently serves on the Liaison Committee of the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM) as well as on the editorial board of the Journal of Travel Medicine. In collaboration with the Global Centre for Mass Gathering Medicine, he is involved in Hajj pilgrimage related research. Original research has been presented at the last five ISTM conferences. He has authored book chapters, including co-authoring the 2018 Hajj chapter in the CDC Health Information for International Travel.

Max Winkler graduated from the University of Cape Town and is a general practitioner at the Hout Bay Family Medical Centre in Hout Bay, Cape Town, South Africa, offering travel medicine related advice to travellers in the travel clinic as well as general clinical duties. His fields of interest include infectious diseases, wilderness medicine and occupational health. Max became President of SASTM at the October 2022 AGM held in Skukuza, Kruger National Park.