Home > Member Profile

S. Mehtar

About S. Mehtar
MBBS, FRC Path (UK), FCPath (Micro) (SA), MD (Eng)
Head of Academic Unit for Infection Prevention and Control
Tygerberg Hospital & Stellenbosch University

Role(s) / Profession(s)

Academic

Organization

Stellenbosch University
Website: http://www.sun.ac.za/ Type: Academic Institution Country: South Africa About: Stellenbosch University is recognized as one of the four top research universities in South Africa. It takes pride in the fact that it has one of the country’s highest proportions of postgraduate students of which almost ten percent are international students. Since its beginning in 1866 when it first opened its doors with about 500 students and 39 lecturers, the University has grown into an internationally recognized institution with more than 23 000 students, 800 lecturers and some 50 research and service bodies. According to Prof. Jimmy Volmink, Research Director at the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS), "its research vision is to be recognized as an indispensable leader in the field of health sciences in Africa and for the contribution it makes internationally." GHDonline Member Patrick McVay adds that “during the past year considerable progress has been made towards realizing this vision. The trend in the number of journal articles, books or book chapters produced by the FHS staff in recent years has been consistently upwards. During 2007, members of the Faculty published cutting edge research in a number of high priority areas which has already had an impact on health policy and practice locally, as well as globally. Examples include work on the molecular mechanisms of XDR-TB, methods for detecting drug-resistant HIV strains, the use of antiretroviral therapy in infants and the incidence of disseminated BCG disease in HIV infected infants, to name only a few.”

Work Location(s)

South Africa

Language(s)

S.'s Communities

TB Infection Control

Recent Contributions

S. Mehtar replied to "Curtains in patient rooms with TB" in the TB Infection Control community.

Agree S Prof Shaheen Mehtar Buitengewoon Professor (Waarnemende Hoof: UIPC) / Extraordinary Professor (Acting Head: UIPC) [cid:image001.png@01CE4753.4DC9C6D0] Eenheid vir Infeksievoorkoming en Beheer / Unit for Infection Prevention and Control Fakulteit Geneeskunde en Gesondheidswetenskappe / Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences Universiteit Stellenbosch University Posbus / PO Box 19063; Francie van ...
S. Mehtar replied to "Curtains in patient rooms with TB" in the TB Infection Control community.

I think the idea of removing the window curtain is a good one, and to darken the window panes. We do have some areas with curtains but these are changed and washed as part of the laundry change for each patient. We seem to have considerable success with this policy. ...
S. Mehtar replied to "Healthcare worker Surveillance" in the TB Infection Control community.

We have an excellent system in place in South Africa but at TBH it is working really well. We do pick up all reported OA TB and it is most interesting to see who and which category of staff acquires TB. Regards S Prof Shaheen Mehtar Buitengewoon Professor (Waarnemende Hoof:UIPC) ...
S. Mehtar replied to "Oxygen tubing being reused- any way to make this safer?" in the TB Infection Control community.

I thought it would get someone's attention. Yes, there is leakage around the balloon especially when the patient coughs during suction. We have certainly seen it sometimes- just a clinical concern for me but I think we should still recommend wearing PPE when suctioning patients even with closed suction. I ...
S. Mehtar replied to "Oxygen tubing being reused- any way to make this safer?" in the TB Infection Control community.

Dear Unarose At our hospital we had a Serratia marcesens outbreak in the NNU affecting 12 babies and killing4. We had Klebs outbreaks in several ICUs. The cost of treating each infection was between R250,000 and R350,000. This information was presented to the powers that be and we have now ...

More »

Recent Recommendations

None at this time.