UKZN’s Paediatric Nephrologist to Present in the US

BY: .

UKZN’s Paediatric Nephrologist, Professor Rajendra Bhimma, has been invited to present a paper at the Nephro 2015 OMICS Group’s 4^th International Conference on Nephrology being held in Baltimore in the United States from September 14-16.

Conference organising committee member, Dr Sudhakar Akul Yakkanti, invited Bhimma to share his knowledge, views and perspectives around the theme: “Integrating Recent Discoveries and Interpreting Clinical Research for Better Renal Health”.

‘It is truly an honour to be invited to such a prestigious meeting to present a paper,’ said Bhimma, whose presentation is titled: “Urinary Tract Infections in Children: A Changing Paradigm”.

The paper is about advances in the diagnosis and management of urinary tract infections in children and how to reduce recurrent infections and prevent ongoing kidney damage that results in kidney failure.

The committee accepted Bhimma’s abstract for oral presentation under conference track 2: Renal Transplantation and Immunology, after he published a review article on the topic in the Advances in Pharmacoepidemiology & Drug Safety Journal.

In the invitation to Bhimma, Yakkanti said the Nephro-2015 conference was initiated by Editors of the Nephrology & Therapeutics, and Diabetes & Metabolism journals.

 Bhimma, who has been in the field of Nephrology for over 20 years with research interests in kidney diseases in children, said his family was very supportive. ‘They are fully behind my efforts in helping children with kidney diseases.’

He said it was difficult to balance work and family time. ‘Children fall ill at any time, while research is time consuming and then there’s patient care amid staff shortages.’

Bhimma is a recipient of the following awards: Charlotte Roberts Travel Award, Nestlé Nutrition Scholarship Programme 1999, Non-Communicable Diseases Award for Kidney Disease Research in Children, and the Adcock-Ingram Critical Care’s International Man of the Year Award.

He also won the ISN GO Clinical R&P award for the Project: The role of MYH9/APOL1 variants and mutations in the development of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis in South African children with idiopathic and HIV related nephrotic syndrome.

Nombuso Dlamini