saturday, 17 november 2012

Speaker:  Anneke Hesseling (South Africa)  - Director, Paediatric Research, Desmond Tutu TB Centre, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

Chairs: Anna Mandalakas (USA), Stephen M. Graham (Australia)

Time:  09:00 - 10:00

Room:  Plenary Hall

Plenary session 3:

"Childhood TB: we need to do more"

ANNEKE HESSELING, MBChb, Msc, PhD

Dr Anneke Hesseling (South Africa) MBChB, MSc, PhD, is Professor and Director of the Paediatric TB Research Programme at the Desmond Tutu TB Centre at Stellenbosch University. She has been conducting clinical TB research in children in settings with a high-burden of TB and HIV for the past 10 years. The focus of her research programme is improved and safe TB preventive strategies for HIV-infected and uninfected children through chemotherapy and vaccination; improved treatment strategies for drug-susceptible and resistant TB disease, including pharmacokinetic studies; and improved TB diagnosis in HIV-infected and uninfected children, including biomarker research. She is actively involved in clinical research and advocacy to involve children in trials of new TB drugs and treatment strategies; and she has extensive experience in the implementation and analysis of clinical TB research in children.

Dr Hesseling completed her medical training at Stellenbosch University and holds an MSc from Columbia University and a PhD from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She has received numerous awards, including the Elizabeth Glazer Paediatric HIV International Leadership Award in 2007.