Examining Manifestations of HIV in Lungs

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UKZN’s Paediatric and Child Health HoD, Professor Refiloe Masekela, recently delivered a presentation on "Manifestations of HIV in the Lung".

Masekela's talk focused on the chronic lung disease, bronchiectasis, in HIV-infected children and she also reviewed some of the work she has done in this field over the years.

‘The research has broadened our understanding of the immunology of HIV- bronchiectasis in children and morbidity associated with this condition,’ said Masekela.

Her research interests are bronchiectasis in children -both in HIV- infected children as well as in cases of cystic fibrosis in non-Caucasians in Africa. She also has an interest in lung physiological testing, particularly lung function testing in children and the determination of normative lung reference equations in African children and adults.

She said in the South African context there was very little data available in this field in children. Running a paediatric HIV clinic where children were presenting with severe lung disease and finding very little in the literature on guidelines to managing these children, inspired Masekela to conduct her study.

Asked what made her passionate about the topic, Masekela replied: ‘Understanding the mechanism of lung disease and potential therapies that could impact the quality of life of patients and prolong their life span.’

 Masekela has published 18 peer-reviewed articles in ISBN accredited journals and has written two chapters on respiratory diseases in children in the tropics in an international Infectious Disease textbook and the European Respiratory Society Monograph.

She completed her PhD (Paediatrics) at the University of Pretoria in 2012.  The title of her thesis was:  "Chronic Inflammatory Lung Disease in Children with  Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Epidemiological Considerations, Aetiological Determinants and the Efficacy of Low Dose Erythromycin in Bronchiectasis."

 Nombuso Dlamini