Events

20 Jul 2017

‘Drug resistant infections in South Africa – how do we stem the tide?’

In common with most other low and middle-income countries, South Africa faces a high burden of bacterial, fungal and protozoal disease, in addition by the dual epidemics of HIV and tuberculosis. Compounding this burden is the increasing rate of drug resistance, as antimicrobial use increases. The last 5 years have seen an unprecedented escalation in international political awareness and action to address drug resistance in common bacterial infections. This seminar will examine South Africa’s response to the broader issue of resistance in multiple pathogens from an infectious disease and public health perspective.

Marc Mendelson is Professor of Infectious Diseases and Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases & HIV Medicine at Groote Schuur Hospital, University of Cape Town (UCT). He studied Medicine at St Mary’s Hospital, London and specialized in Infectious Diseases at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, where he attained his PhD. He moved to The Rockefeller University, New York in 2001 and subsequently to UCT to work on tuberculosis and innate immunity.

Marc is Chair of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and South African lead for AMR on the Global Health Security Agenda. He is a technical advisor to WHO, the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP), the Fleming Fund, and a member of the AMR Core Team of the World Economic Forum/Wellcome Trust collaboration on implementing new models of antibiotic R&D.

He is out-going President of the Federation of Infectious Diseases Societies of Southern Africa, and President-Elect of the International Society for Infectious Diseases.

For all enquiries, please contact Arjun Rajkhowa.