We are honoured to introduce our amazing Keynote Speaker for the SASTM Conference – TRAVEL MEDICINE IN AN AGE OF CHANGE, to be held in Stellenbosch, 16 – 19 October 2024.

Emmanuel’s skill and dedication as a physician, and his stubborn refusal to be discouraged by setbacks, led to an important discovery in the treatment of hypoxaemic COVID-19 patients. By never giving up, this son of Sudan has risen above extreme poverty, racism and xenophobia to become a South African legend.

He is a highly qualified registered pulmonologist and also holds a European Diploma in adult respiratory medicine.

To imagine that he actually started uninterrupted schooling only at the age of seventeen defies all logic. Taban emerged with a novel technique of mucus extraction from the lungs in the midst of Covid-19. He is the first in the world to undertake this intricate procedure.

His life story and journey on foot and hikes from Juba in South Sudan at the age of fifteen, to Khartoum, to Eritrea, to Ethiopia, to Kenya, to Tanzania, to Mozambique, through Zimbabwe and finally to South Africa at the age of seventeen displays this Refugee’s epic journey to triumph – written in his autobiography – The Boy Who Never Gave Up

Adele Baleta is an award-winning independent science writer, editor, facilitator and communications consultant. She has been published in local publications including Daily Maverick. Spotlight, News 24, Business Day and the SA Medical Journal. Adele worked as a correspondent for the Lancet group of medical journals for over 25 years and has been published in the peer review journal Vaccine as principal author.

She has worked with the WHO for 25 years as a vaccine safety communication’s advisor and was a member of the South African National Advisory Group on Vaccine Hesitancy during the Covid-19 pandemic. She was also a health advisor for Internews during the pandemic. She has facilitated communication training workshops in over 25 countries for, among others, the WHO, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the World Federation of Science Journalists.

Karen Barnes is a Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Cape Town (UCT), with research interests focusing on improving the treatment of malaria.

Karen has over 25 years of experience in malaria treatment research and policy making nationally, regionally and internationally.

Her research interests focus on translational research on the clinical pharmacology of antimalarials in order to inform malaria treatment policy and practice –

Professor Lucille Blumberg is an infectious diseases and clinical microbiology specialist at ‘Right to Care’. She has honorary appointments at the National institute for Communicable Diseases and the Universities of Stellenbosch and Pretoria (Faculty of Veterinary Science).  

Her special interests are in tropical diseases, travel medicine, malaria, the viral haemorrhagic fevers, rabies and One Health.

She is a member of a number of International and South African expert groups including the National Rabies Advisory Group and the National Malaria Advisory Group.  

Dr Boecken is a Specialist in General and Occupational Medicine, and his sub-speciality is in Tropical Medicine and Emergency Care.

He is currently the Regional Medical Director for West Africa and Head of the Embassy Clinic for the German Embassy in Accra. Ghana.

He worked from 2020 to July 2024 as the Regional Medical Director for South America and Head of the Embassy Clinic for the German Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Dr Boecken has worked in many countries including Kenya, Cameroon, Germany, Indonesia, Somalia, Cambodia and Djibouti.

Jim was born and grew up in the bush in Northern Zambia and is still very much an African at heart.  His first job was in a safari camp in the Okavango, which is where he first found his love for exploring remote rivers bymokoro (dug-out canoe) and other local craft, as a relaxed and unthreatening way to enjoy nature and observe wildlife.  He has since led and/or acted as doctor to a number of tropical expeditions and safaris by canoe, sailing pirogue, dhow, ox-cart or on foot.     

After studying medicine in the UK, he deliberately chose a broad, ‘portfolio’ training with the aim of acquiring the various practical skills needed to be of use working back in his home continent as a rural health doctor. 

Dr Coetzee qualified as a clinical microbiologist from University of Witwatersrand, and spent time working as a consultant at Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital. Currently working as a consultant microbiologist in the Clinical microbiology and Molecular biology departments of Ampath’s National Reference Laboratory in Centurion, Gauteng. 

I am a member of South African Society of Clinical Microbiology (SASCM) as well as European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID).

Dr Ryno Crous completed his MBChB at the University of Stellenbosch in 2016.

After completing his internship and community service he spent additional time working in the Trauma Unit at Khayelitsha Hospital and subsequently received his Diploma in Emergency Medicine in March 2021.

Since May 2022 he has been a doctor onboard various cruise ships and during this time he furthered his studies by completing a Diploma in Occupational Medicine (Cum Laude) as well as Certification in Basic Underwater Medicine, Operational Underwater Medicine and Travel Medicine.

Dr de Frey is a medical professional with a career dedicated to travel medicine and public health.

Committed to providing comprehensive health risk management solutions to corporate clients and advancing the field of travel medicine through education, research and international collaboration.

Dr de Frey studied at the University of Pretoria, completing his MBChB in 1983.

Dr de Frey is the Founding Member of the South African Society of Travel Medicine and was instrumental in the development of the Travel Medicine Course at the University of the Witwatersrand.

He is the Site Director for Geosentinel in Johannesburg as well as a member of the WHO Expert Roster on Travel Health in Geneva, Switzerland.

Dr. Danie Erwee is a Specialist Physician with a passion for both patient care and teaching. He completed his undergraduate medical degree at the University of Stellenbosch and thereafter specialised in Internal Medicine at The University of Cape Town (UCT). After lecturing at UCT for two years, he shifted to private practice where he focuses on lipidology, obesity management, diagnostics, and palliative care.

Known for his holistic and practical approach, Dr. Erwee enjoys solving complex medical problems with straightforward patient-focused solutions. When not working, he enjoys time with his wife, who is also a physician, and their two daughters.

Heather Finlayson MBCHB, FCPaeds, CertID(Paeds), MBA

Paediatric infectious Diseases and Antimicrobial Resistance Specialist

Heather is an experienced infectious diseases paediatrican with over 15 years experience in the South African public sector. Based at a tertiary training hospital in South Africa, she leads the antimicrobial stewardship team.  She has served two terms on the Ministerial Advisory Committee for Antimicrobial resistance where she led a national antibiotic point prevalence survey in 2023. Besides a passion for antimicrobial resistance and stewardship she is driven by quality improvement and a value based healthcare approach.  She also holds an MBA with an aim to strengthen her position in Healthcare Leadership and provide quality healthcare to all.  Recently she has been involved in programmes strengthening supply chain of antibiotics in order to improve access to antibiotics in lesser resourced settings.  Other interests include infection prevention control including vaccination programmes and equitable access to vaccinations.

Samantha Heymans is a travel health practitioner at The Travel Doctor Corporate doing pre-deployment medicals, occupational health assessments and immigration medicals.

Sam grew up and attended school in Zimbabwe and moved to South Africa to study medicine. She completed her MBChB at the University of Pretoria in 2018 and holds a diploma in HIV management and Certificates in travel, dive and aviation medicine. She is currently studying occupational medicine through Stellenbosch University. 

Sam did her certificate in Travel Medicine in 2022 and won the Young Investigators Travel Award from the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM) and delivered posters at the ISTM conference in Basel, Switzerland in 2023.  

Dr Robyn Holgate is the Emergency Medicine Manager for Mediclinic Southern Africa and the Chief Medical Officer of ER24. She started her medical career as an ICU and trauma nurse, and later completed her Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBBCh) at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.  She’s also obtained her MSc in Medicine (in Emergency Medicine). After gaining clinical and emergency medicine experience within the state sector, she moved to ER24 in 2009. She’s passionate about global emergency care access, clinical excellence and patient safety.

Robyn still keeps clinically active by assisting with training and operational response. She is an Advanced Trauma Life Support, Aviation medicine, and Major Incident Management Instructor.

Dr. Matshediso Kgamane is the founder and medical director at DrK Travel Clinic in Gaborone, Botswana. With nearly 20 years of experience in both government and private practice, she has made significant contributions to healthcare in Botswana. 

Dr. Kgamane earned her undergraduate degree in Biology from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, and her medical degree from Saba University School of Medicine in the Netherlands-Antilles. She further received postgraduate certificates in Travel Medicine and Aviation Medicine. Recently, she completed a fellowship in wilderness medicine through the Wilderness Medicine Society. She also has certification in risk management for outdoor programs.  

Dr. Aisha Khatib is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Family & Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. She trained in family and emergency medicine from the University of Toronto and McGill University, and completed an Infectious Diseases fellowship in Clinical Tropical Medicine at the University of Toronto. She holds certification in Travel Medicine from the University of Otago in New Zealand, and a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the Gorgas Course in Peru.

She worked as a Travel Doctor in New Zealand for five years before returning to Canada. She is currently the Clinical Director of Travel Medicine at Medcan, Past- President of the Alberta Association of Travel Health Professionals, Co-Chair of the ASTMH Update Course in Clinical Tropical Medicine and Travelers’ Health, and Chair of the ISTM Responsible Travel Interest Group. 

She is also a member of CATMAT, the Committee to Advise on Tropical Medicine and Travel, an external advisory body to the Public Health Agency of Canada.  Her recent research focused on the safety of air travel during the pandemic, as well as climate change and travel. 

Dr. Rochelle Lee earned her MBChB degree from the University of Pretoria and subsequently began her career in the field of Emergency Medicine at a hospital in Pretoria, while also working at a travel clinic. In 2016, she further advanced her expertise by completing a Diploma in Primary Emergency Care (DipPEC) and specializing in Travel Medicine. Her passion for emergency healthcare, with a focus on travel medicine, led her to become actively involved with the South African Society of Travel Medicine (SASTM) Executive Committee from 2016 onward.

In 2022, Dr. Lee joined a general practice that specialized in travel medicine, while continuing her work in prominent emergency departments in Pretoria. The following year, in 2023, she relocated with her family to Zambia, where she took on the role of senior medical doctor at a hospital servicing a mining community in Solwezi. Her work there encompassed a broad range of healthcare, including managing infectious diseases, emergencies, trauma, and pediatric care. In addition to her hands-on medical role, she completed a Diploma in General Practice Management during her time in Zambia, further expanding her leadership and clinical management skills.

Thérèse Maarschalk is a travel health practitioner at The Travel Doctor Corporate doing pre- and post-travel consultations. After working in Malawi and the UK she did diplomas in obstetrics, anaesthetics, tropical medicine and occupational health while in general practice.  While doing volunteer palliative care at a hospice for homeless people in Hillbrow she obtained her M.Phil in palliative medicine.

Thérèse did the first certificate in Travel Medicine at WITS in 2000 and delivered papers and posters at the ISTM conferences in New York, Edinburgh, Melbourne, Shangai and AECTM.

She is the occupational medical practitioner for the AngloAmerican Corporate clinic in Johannesburg and is a SAMSA and OEUK registered practitioner performing fitness assessments for offshore and maritime industry.

Her hobbies include sewing, choir singing, clarinet playing, jogging and reading.

Francois Maartens (MSc) has 25 years’ experience in applied malaria research and malaria vector control, including indoor residual spray (IRS) training, entomological field data collections, parasite prevalence surveys and the implementation and coordination of integrated malaria control operations in several African countries and in India.

Francois was part of the Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative (LSDI), Malaria Control Programme since 1999 and he coordinated the extension of the LSDI programme in Mozambique to Gaza Province. Francois joined Africa Fighting Malaria (AFM), an international health advocacy group in 2007 where he conducted malaria research and advocacy with the focus on IRS. 

Shaheen Mehtar is a retired Professor of IPC, Tygerberg Hospital, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town. She trained as a medical microbiologist in the UK, and headed up the Microbiology Dept at the North Middlesex Hospital; honorary Senior Lecturer at the Royal Free Hospital.

She moved to South Africa where she set up the Unit for IPC, Tygerberg Hospital, and founded the Infection Control Africa Network (ICAN), the largest IPC organisation in Africa concentrating on IPC education and leadership from Cape to Cairo.

She served on several International Societies,  WHO Guideline Development Groups (GDG) and CDC Consultative Organisations. She has worked extensively in displaced persons establishments. She has published extensively including several books and chapters.

Dr Susan Meiring is the clinical coordinator for GERMS-SA, a national surveillance programme on bacterial and fungal infections. Her main areas of interest are surveillance on vaccine preventable diseases, and understanding burden of infectious diseases in vulnerable populations.

In 2022 and 2023 she was a facilitator for the WHO Defeating meningitis country specific strategic planning meetings for the African region and is currently serving on the WHO Defeating meningitis Technical Taskforce for Surveillance.  

She holds a medical officer position in the Division of Public Heath, Surveillance and Response at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, a division of the National Health Laboratory Services. She completed her MBChB at UCT and her PhD at Wits through the School of Public Health. 

Nicolene completed her MBChB at the University of Pretoria.

She was in the South African National Defence Force for 18 years where she did her Military Training and Basic Ambulance Service, completing her Internship at 2 Military Hospital in Wynberg, Cape Town. She was promoted to the rank of Major in January 2017.

She was involved in Battle Support as part of the South African Military Health Service.

She is a highly experienced Military Medical Officer with extensive frontline medical experience. Her operational experience was both in South African and The Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In 2019 Nicolene was deployed by the SANDF within the United Nations MONUSCO mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, working as part of the Aeromedical Evacuation Team (AMET) stationed at the UN Mavivi Airbase near Beni, providing support to the local and UN Security Forces in one of the most violent regions of the DRC, known as the “Triangle”.

In 2022 Nicolene left the Military and worked for a year as a Medical Officer at Kamoa CopperSA in the DRC.

Arifa Parker is an Infectious Diseases specialist and Head of the Unit for Infection Prevention and Control at Stellenbosch University and Tygerberg Hospital. She is the current president of the Infectious Diseases Society of Southern Africa (IDSSA) and serves on the Infection Control Africa Network (ICAN) board. Her interests are infection prevention, antimicrobial stewardship and the relationships between infections and non-communicable diseases. 

Salim Parker is a travel medicine and general practitioner. He is the past president of the South African Society of Travel Medicine (SASTM) and serves on the Liaison Committee of the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM). He collaborates with the Global Centre for Mass Gathering Medicine (GCMGM) and co-authored the Hajj Travel chapter in the 2020 edition of the CDC Yellow Book, as well as for the 2023 edition.

Dr Setas-Ferreira graduated in Medicine from the Faculty of Medical Sciences of Universidade Nova de Lisboa (MD). She earned a postgraduate degree in Management of Health Systems at the Catholic University of Lisbon, Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (DTM&H) – Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Masters in International Public Health (MPH) – Liverpool University and Certification in Travel Medicine – Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Dr Setas-Ferreira retired from the Oil and Gas industry, completing a career of 28 years – 9 years with Chevron and 18 years with ExxonMobil- dedicated to the protection of the health of workers, from occupational exposures.

Lynda graduated from the University of Witwatersrand in 1993 with a BPharm degree and has worked in the retail and hospital pharmacy environment until 2015.

She then joined Amayeza Info Services as a Medicine Information Pharmacist.

Here she was exposed to the exciting world of vaccines, and, together with her colleagues, runs the Vaccine Helpline. She also heads up the training of healthcare professionals on vaccines and vaccinology. 

She writes for various medical publications and is editor for Pharmacy Focus magazine.

Lynda completed the  South African Society of Travel Medicine (SASTM) Travel Medicine Course in 2019 and now serves on the SASTM Executive Committee. 

Dr Charles Tarimo completed his Doctor of Medicine degree at Hubert Karuki Memorial University In 2014. He then further pursued to complete his internship at the Bugando Medical Centre in the Lake Zone in Tanzania, then furthering his working career at Central Tanzania, Christian Medical Centre. He moved back to Dar es Salaam in 2018, where he has been working as a General Practitioner.

Charles is on the Board of the Pan African Travel Medicine Federation (PATMF) and a member of the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM).

He is a Certified Travel Medicine Practitioner (SASTM Travel Medicine Course), is certified as an Aviation Medicine Practitioner by the South Africa Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) as well as being an Off-Shore Energies UK examiner. 

He is a fitness enthusiast and spends most of his free time partaking in fitness activities. He has a goal to motivate and inspire health and fitness by incorporating this in his daily practice. 

State Veterinarian: Epidemiology at Western Cape Department of Agriculture, 2011 to present responsible for designing strategies for disease surveillance and prevention as well as co-ordinating the implementation of these strategies, advising field personnel on the investigation and control of animal disease outbreaks, management of provincial animal disease data and reporting to the national Directorate of Animal Health.