Board of Directors

Dr Francesca Conradie - President

Dr Francesca Conradie is a joint appointee of Right to Care and the Clinical HIV Research Unit (CHRU). She is appointed as Right to Care’s Clinical Advisor to Sizwe Hospital, a hospital for the treatment of multidrug resistant TB. She is charged with the integration of HIV and TB services at this site. Francesca obtained her MBBCh from Wits University in 1988. She was involved in general practice until she joined CHRU in 2000. Since then she has obtained a Diploma in HIV Management; a Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene; and a Higher Diploma in Epidemiology (from the University of London). She is currently studying for her MSc in Epidemiology from the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Dr Conradie joined CHRU as a sub-investigator. She has since been the principal investigator on a number of trials. She worked in the HIV clinic at Helen Joseph Hospital from 2001 until 2005. In that time, she participated in the start of the ARV rollout. She has gained extensive experience in ARV therapy and its complications, and in opportunistic infections.

She assisted with the writing CIPRA protocol and was involved in the implementation of this project at the Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU). In 2005, she was appointed Project Leader of CIPRA Project 1. She also led other ACTG trials (5208 and 5207). She is the site leader for HPTN 052. In 2005, Francesca was promoted to Deputy Director of CHRU.

Francesca frequently lectures for Right to Care, the Foundation for Professional Development, and other institutions. She has authored and co-authored many journal articles and abstracts. She assisted with the writing of the Southern African HIV Clinicians’ Society guidelines for antiretroviral therapy in adults in 2008, and is leading the Society’s development of guidelines for antiretroviral drug resistance testing.

Francesca is a member of the Human Research and Ethics Committee of Wits University.

Dr Natasha Davies

MBChB (Hons, Glasgow, 2002), Dip HIV Man (CMSA, 2006), MPH (Liverpool, 2011)

After graduating top of her class at Glasgow University medical school (2002) and completing her internship year in Scotland (2002/3), Natasha Davies moved to South Africa. She first worked as a medical officer in Kwa-Zulu Natal (2003-05). As this was pre-antiretroviral rollout, gaining skills in opportunistic diseases management and palliative care became her primary focus. From the beginning of the national ART programme (2004), she began initiating and managing patients on ART and was actively involved in supporting rural primary healthcare clinics adapting to the new programme. In 2005, she moved to the infectious diseases unit at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, in Soweto. Under the mentorship of Professor Alan Karstaedt, one of the most well respected infectious diseases clinicians in South Africa, Natasha accumulated extensive clinical experience managing complex HIV-associated inpatient cases and providing chronic, outpatient ART care. In 2006 she passed the Diploma in HIV Management (CMSA). In 2008 she published her first peer reviewed journal article: ‘Shigella Bacteremia: Trends in Soweto’.

Whilst at Baragwanath Hospital, Natasha developed a particular passion for ensuring prisoners accessed ART. She managed many of the inmates attending the outpatient clinic whilst also providing onsite support at Johannesburg prison. She partnered with prison medical staff to establish one of the first on-site Department of Correctional Services ART clinics. She also trained nursing staff in HIV diagnosis, CD4 monitoring, timely ART referral and TB/HIV co-infection. In 2008 she was involved in the development of the SA HIV Clinicians Society “Guidelines for prevention and treatment of HIV in arrested, detained and sentenced persons’.

In 2010, Natasha moved to RHRU, now WRHI (Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute), continuing her professional development under the guidance of, amongst others, Professor Francois Venter and Dr Vivian Black. Her primary interest remains providing quality clinical care to HIV infected persons, with a particular interest in ART treatment ‘failure’ and assisting sero-discordant couples wishing to conceive. Her other passion lies in providing nurse-initiated-and-managed ART (NIMART) training and mentorship. She recently attained a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from University of Liverpool. Her MPH dissertation project explored NIMART implementation from the grassroots perspective of NIMART-nurses and their managers. This project stemmed from Natasha’s determination to listen to healthcare providers and her belief that attempting to address dysfunctional aspects of the healthcare system will prove more successful if we listen to those at the coal face of service delivery. As a result of actively supporting NIMART nurses, Natasha was invited to join the editorial committee of HIV Nursing Matters a nursing magazine of the SA HIV Clinicians’ Society in April 2011. Natasha strives to maintain that precarious balance between being an HIV clinician, her first love, and utilising the insights which result from working in the public healthcare system to influence healthcare provider training and support and public health policy.

Dr Ashraf Grimwood

Dr Grimwood, CEO of Kheth’Impilo, a NGO made up of HIV experienced health care professionals and community care workers supporting the South African Government comprehensive plan for HIV treatment, care and support. He started working in HIV during his stay in Australia in the late 80’s and continued his work in South Africa since 1992. He has extensive HIV experience in both public and private sectors with a community health focus.

Dr Grimwood was chair of NACOSA, currently served on the boards of Yabonga, Triangle project, and is currently serving on the Dira Sengwe board as well as being deputy chair for the Centre for Conflict Resolution. He was previously Executive Director of ARK SA, Deputy Director of SAHIVAC as well as Director of the HIV Research Unit, Secure the Future and also the Discovery HIVCare Advisory Board.

Dr Moeketsi Tsepo Mathe

Dr Moeketsi Mathe is a graduate of UCT having attained his MBChB in 2003. He is a current member of the Society’s Strategic Advisory Group (previously the Executive Committee) and a member of the Society’s adult guidelines review committee. He has been involved in the HIV field since 2006 when he joined RHRU as a member of the mobile clinical support team. As a member of the team he was tasked with providing training to clinicians on HIV management and on-site clinical support for sites in the North West province including Taung; Potchefstroom; Klerksdorp and Rustenburg. 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 5 day HIV Management course as well as the 3 day nurses course. He attained his Diploma in HIV Management [Dip HIV Man(SA)] in 2006. He has since been in private practice working at Folateng Ward Sebokeng Hospital with a particular emphaisis on HIV management. His area of interest is HIV in the 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.

Qualifications:

• 2003 MBChB
• 2005 ATLS
• 2006 Dip HIV Man (SA)
• 2008 Intergrated Health and wellness management programme
• WITS Graduate School of Public and Development Management

Dr Michelle Moorhouse

Michelle Moorhouse graduated from Wits in 1995, qualified as a GP anaesthetist then, like many of her peers, switched her professional track to the management of HIV. Michelle co-founded Triple M Research with Niel Malan, placing Port Elizabeth firmly on the map as one of the first internationally accredited HIV clinical trial centers in the Eastern Cape. Michelle went on to found the HIV journal club in PE, which later became the local chapter of the HIV Clinician’s Society under the leadership of Dr Kas Kasongo.

In 2003, Michelle was awarded an Honorary Clinical Fellowship at the Royal Free Hospital in London, one of the largest treatment centers for HIV in Europe. She has held senior advisory posts at Abbott and Boehringer, led the UK launch of Tipranavir in 2005, and was medical director at Novartis Vaccines and acting head of HIV therapeutics at GSK. Whilst working in the UK, Michelle earned the respect of many leading internationally renowned HIV clinicians.

Michelle returned to South African roots in 2007, where she founded Medisynergy, an HIV clinical research centre, and re-established her general practice - much to the excitement of a number of patients who started ARV treatment under her management many years earlier!

Michelle started consulting at an HIV clinic in Motherwell Township for a local NGO in 2010, where she supported their clinical mentorship program for NIMART, as well as providing clinical care for complex cases. Michelle is now employed by this NGO, the Institute for Youth Development SA (IYDSA) as Clinical Advisor. IYDSA is the largest HIV/AIDS NGO in the Eastern Cape. In this role, Michelle focuses on providing clinical support to the nurses and mentors in the NIMART programme, as well as training and mentoring doctors in the public sector.

Michelle is an active member of the HIV Clinicians’ Society, and is regularly invited as a speaker in PE. These meetings are extremely well attended, which in turn reflects the regions commitment to building capacity and expertise for HIV management. Michelle shares the opinion that the collective energy of the Eastern Cape should be channelled into the Society through direct representation by a local member on the Board of Directors. As such, Michelle would like to offer her experience and passion to the Members of the SA HIV Society.

Prof Yunus Moosa

Dr 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, which include susceptible and resistant tuberculosis in all its forms, HIV/AIDS and associated opportunistic infections, typhoid, malaria, nosocomial sepsis, infective endocarditis, drug related toxicities, etc.

He is involved in bedside teaching and training of medical student, postgraduates at all levels and Infectious Diseases Subspecialists.

His research interests include:

1. Improving the diagnosis of smear negative HIV associated pulmonary tuberculosis using methods to improve clinical sample collection
2. Epidemiology and Immunogenetics of Immune Reconstitution Inflammatory Syndrome (IRIS).
3. Causes of neurologic deterioration in cryptococcal meningitis following commencement of ART.

Dr Moosa has been an invited consultant to the WHOs Special Programme for Tropical Disease Research and Training (TDR) 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 PEPFAR program

Dr Tim Tucker

Tim Tucker is a medical doctor, a registered specialist Clinical Virologist, with a PhD in molecular virology.

Tim established and built his management consultancy – SEAD Consulting (Pty) Ltd – over the last six years, and this has grown into a major health strategy group servicing the needs of many agencies within SA and internationally. SEAD Consulting is dedicated to improving the lives of the poorest sectors in society, through the development of strategies that enhance the performance, quality, alignment and sustainability of community-based programs.

After qualifying as a medical doctor, Tim practiced for some years in general medicine and subsequently at the University of Cape Town specialist liver disease research unit. He then completed a PhD in molecular virology at the University of Cape Town, where he led a laboratory and clinical research team in various aspects of HIV and hepatitis viruses. He is an honorary member of staff in the Clinical Virology Department of the University of Cape Town.

Tim was the head of the South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI), a large product development-based consortium. The product development aspects and significant clinical trial capacity created by SAAVI resulted in the consortium becoming a well-respected, global HIV vaccine developer. Tim is also the past deputy chair of the African AIDS Vaccine Program, and has sat on boards and international committees relating to HIV and product development.

Prof Francois Venter

Prof Francois Venter is currently Deputy Executive Director, WHI (Wits Institute for Sexual & Reproductive Health, HIV and Related Diseases, previously RHRU and ECHO) and an associate professor in the Department of Medicine, University of the Witwatersrand. He is the head of Infectious Diseases at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital. His interests range from access to care, drug toxicity and the ethics of HIV, as well as clinical opportunistic infections and neoplasms, and his interests focus almost entirely on the public sector.