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News

Professor Segal, Director at the Centre for Molecular
Medicine in London, visited the unit in January 2012


From left: Professor Dheda, head of the Lung Infection and Immunity Unit,
Dr Grant Theron, Prof Anthony Segal, Dr Anke Binder, Dr Jonny Peter,
Lameze Fredericks, Anil Pooran, Malika Davids

[...download MP3 file] 20.2 MB

In a project led by Professor Keertan Dheda, a prototype TB test strip was successfully demonstrated and there are plans to further develop the intellectual property. Prototype development is nearing completion and a spin-off company, Antrum Biotechnologies (Pty) Ltd, has successfully attracted funding from the Department of Trade and Industry’s SPII to pursue the next stage. More significant funding is also being raised to take the product to market.

Lung Unit student in the UCT news [...download article]

Sports achievement for Lung Unit member Russell Mains, a member of the Lung Unit, and his team won second place in the Elite section at the SA National Darts Championship held at Kibler Park in Gauteng in July 2011. We congratulate Russell and his team for their fine achievement in this highly competitive category.

Student piques interest with her TB findings [...read article]

New MDR-TB diagnostic tool
Die Burger – 15 April 2011 [...download article]

Dr Keertan Dheda wins Union Award

Dr. Keertan Dheda, Associate Professor of Respiratory Medicine, based within the Department of Medicine, at the University of Cape Town, was the recipient of the 2010 “Union Scientific Award”. The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD) is an international society that bestows an annual global award to a researcher under the age of 45 who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of tuberculosis and/or lung disease. Dr. Dheda received the prestigious award at the 2010 IUATLD meeting in Berlin for his contributions to the fields of diagnostics and drug-resistant tuberculosis. His work was recently published in The Lancet, Annals of Internal Medicine, and the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, and addresses challenges in managing patients with XDR-TB, drug-resistant TB in health care workers, and enhancing the rapid diagnosis of TB. This work was funded by the EDCTP, NIH, South African MRC and the South African Department of Science and Technology (SARChI). The award was presented to Dr. Dheda on behalf of the Union by Dr. Michael Kimerling of the Gates Foundation'. [...read more]

Watch the movie: 'Opening of the World Conference'

SABC interview
SABC Interview on collapsed lungs

[...download wav file] 5 MB

Radio interview
Radio Interview about XDR-TB with SAFM, the leading national news channel
[...download MP3 file] 29.9 MB

Courses:-

1. Grant writing and manuscript preparation course [...download course info]
2. Biostats course programme [...download course info] [...download slides]
3. XDR TB course programme [...download course info] [...download slides]

Xpert TB diagnostic highlights gap in point-of-care pipeline [...download article]

SA Health Workers Getting Deadly TB
Cape Times – 21 September 2010 [...download article]

TB workshop commentary
Monday Paper – 13-26 September 2010 [...download article]

Keertan Dheda serves on American Thoracic Society MTPI
committee 2009-2010

Left to right. BACK ROW:  Ed Chan, Stephen Gordon, Keertan Dheda,
Charles Feldman, Mark Metersky; FRONT ROW: Sam Moskowitz,
Adithya Cattamanchi, Carol Hamilton, Marcos Restropo, Scott Evans, Adrian Rendon

Multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis:
a threat to global control of tuberculosis.
The Lancet – May 2010 [...read more] or [...download article]

Early treatment outcomes and HIV status of patients with extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis in South Africa:
a retrospective cohort study. The Lancet – May 2010
[...read more] or [...download article]

Infection control 'urgently needed' to curb spread of XDR-TB among health care workers [...read more]

XDR tuberculosis in South Africa: old questions,
new answers [...read more]

TB hits health workers
Mail & Gaurdian 14-20 May 2010 [...download article]

World TB Day 2010

The Lung Infection and Immunity Unit of the University of Cape Town would like to join with the rest of the world in commemorating World TB day today, Wednesday the 24th of March, 2010. The Unit would like to take the opportunity to re-affirm its commitment to improving heath care through research, continued development of diagnostic techniques and dedicated patient care. We are also pleased to announce the publication 'Clinical utility of a commercial LAM-ELISA assay for TB diagnosis in HIV-infected patients using urine and sputum samples', published in PLoS ONE today. [...download article]

Bulletin of UK TB Research [...download article]

World TB Day 2010: Eradicating tuberculosis in
sub-Saharan Africa needs effective and committed north-south
partnerships [...download article]

World TB Day 2010 – New innovations are required for
enhancing the global fight against Tuberculosis: the
‘Captain of all these men of death’ [...download article]

Lung Infection and Immunity Unit in the news!

Kiss of Life for lung-infection research [...download article]

Argus – 23 October 2009
Doctor raises questions over TB skin testing [...download article]

Monday Paper – 26 October - 8 November 2009

1. Success in triplicate for TB researchers [...download article]
2. Researcher puts TB screening to the test [...download article]