UP’s Prof Wanda Markotter joins world One Health panel of experts to prevent future pandemics

Posted on May 25, 2021

UP's Prof Wanda Markotter is one of 26 global experts chosen to provide science-based advice to the One Health High-Level Expert Panel, a UN initiative.

Health-People-Places Chair will strengthen UP’s science leadership in Africa

Posted on May 19, 2021

“A strong focus is mentoring young academics in this transdisciplinary space and expanding resources,” says Prof Wanda Markotter. Prof Markotter, Director of the UP’s Centre for Viral Zoonoses, has been appointed as Future Africa Research Chair on Health-People-Places....

Zoonotic diseases and the value of natural history voucher specimens and collaborative research

Posted on March 12, 2021

During this COVID-19 pandemic, which is having a considerable global impact, it seems relevant to focus people’s attention on zoonotic disease research that is being undertaken in southern Africa, in particular South Africa. You may have heard, or read, that the likely host for the virus,...

Working collaboratively and across disciplines is the only way to beat the pandemics and crises of the future, UP’s Future Africa tells Galien Forum Africa

Posted on December 17, 2020

“COVID-19 will probably not be the last pandemic. If we don’t build resource capacity, we’re going to be in more trouble. And if we don’t build a youth that thinks transdisciplinarily, we are also going to be in trouble,” said Professor Wanda Markotter of the...

UP Expert Lecture: Learning from COVID-19 can help prevent future pandemics, says virologist Prof Wanda Markotter

Posted on November 10, 2020

“It’s not just about disease surveillance; we really need to bring multidisciplinary teams together, and use the resources to answer several different questions.”

Can wildlife biosurveillance prevent future pandemics?

Posted on October 28, 2020

The concept of “One health” refers to a transdisciplinary approach to optimize human, animal and environmental health at various interphases of convergence. None has it ever been more important to understand human-animal interactions than now during the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 has...

UP webinar on ‘Future Africa Post-COVID-19’ suggests researchers must play leading role in reshaping African society

Posted on June 02, 2020

Participants from around the world joined a University of Pretoria (UP)-hosted webinar titled “Future Africa Post-COVID-19” on Friday. The webinar was held in commemoration of Africa Month, which is celebrated throughout May, and looked at what the future holds for the continent in...

COVID-19: Why it matters that scientists continue their search for source of ‘patient zero’s’ infection

Posted on March 13, 2020

The current COVID-19 outbreak is driven by a novel coronavirus (SARS CoV-2) that is spreading between people. The first human infections were reported at the end of December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei province in China when a cluster of 41 pneumonia cases was identified. Deeper analysis showed that it...