Page 97 - SAMRC Annual Report 2024-2025

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

Intersection of
Non-communicable Diseases

and Infectious Diseases
Research Unit

Co-director:
Prof. Mpiko Ntsekhe
mpiko.ntsekhe@uct.ac.za

Advancing Research Priorities: acquired HIV using novel imaging tools (e.g., CMR)

Strategic Objectives and Impact and molecular biological approaches.
The top priority and strategic objective of the unit Highlights included epidemiological analyses that
for the financial period were a series of research suggest a potential link between prior and latent
projects that investigated the impact of remote TB and incident diabetes and heart disease, and
tuberculosis (endemic in SA) and HIV (pandemic in CMR studies demonstrating that adolescents with
SA) and or its treatment (anti-retroviral therapy) on 1] perinatally acquired HIV have more heart muscle
the epidemiology of NCDs (focus on hypertension, disease than controls without HIV. The novel
diabetes) in the general population; 2] the risk of information and results generated from these studies
cardiovascular disease and 3] the development of have also helped identify the major gaps and priority
heart muscle disease in adolescence with perinatally research questions to address in the field.

Amid a turbulent time, Ntobeko Ntusi’s steadfast leadership was key to steering the department of medicine at
the University of Cape Town into quiet waters.

SAMRC ANNUAL REPOR T 2024-25 95