The Department of Paediatrics and Child Health has a registered Allergologist

Prof Matt Haus, Extraordinary Professor in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Pretoria is now registered as an Allergologist with the HPCSA.

The plan is to now register the Unit for Allergology training and to begin training Allergologists for South Africa.

Allergic diseases are common and increasing in prevalence. South Africa desperately needs registered Allergologists to guide patient care, training and research in this discipline.

More about Prof Matt Haus: After graduating from the University of Cape Town in 1974, Professor Haus spent seven years in private general practice and five years in Paediatrics at the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital, during which time he obtained a research doctorate (M.D.) from U.C.T. In addition he now has 7 other degrees in medicine.

He holds two post-graduate Diplomas from the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa in Paediatrics, and Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and is a Fellow of both the Royal College of Physicians (UK) and the College’s of Medicine of South Africa.  Professor Haus has been awarded the Claude Harris Leon Medal of the Colleges. He has served the CMSA with distinction as Senate Member, Examiner and Editor of Transactions, the Colleges' Journal. Matt has been awarded a number of very significant distinctions in his life. He was awarded the Financial Mail Rare Achievers Award for Science and Technology in 1989, and also awarded the 2003 FARMOVS prize for his contribution to Medical Research in South Africa from the South African Academy of Science and Technology. In 2005 he was honored with the National Wits University Award for his contribution to Cancer research and patient care.

His academic research has been widely published and he has managed collaborative research projects with the NIH (Atlanta), the University of Cape Town, the British Medical Research Council's Epidemiology Unit and the Karolinska Institute at the University of Stockholm.  He has a special interest in the epidemiology and immunology of the Allergic Response, and has published and lectured widely both nationally and internationally on academic, pharmaceutical and philosophic related topics.

He has expertise as an Allergologist of International standing and is considered a world expert in Allergy Prevention. His list of publications is heavily weighted in this domain. He has over 200 original scientific publications, reviews, published abstracts and presentations at International scientific meetings. Included are 8 high impact factor International journal publications and 3 ‘Classic citations’. He is a regular invited scientist to International Congresses and chairs a number of International Scientific Boards

He has supervised 2 PhD projects. Professor Haus enjoys the highest status and gravitas in the Scientific Community in South Africa and Internationally.

He also has expertise as an Academic leader in Medicine, Business and Research Over the past 25 years, he has directed clinical pharmaceutical research in South Africa, the Asia Pacific region and in Latin America with more than 100 New Chemical Entities being brought to the fore.  In addition he has been Director of over 300 International multicentre pharmaceutical entity clinical trials and been Vice-President of Research and Development for Astra-Zeneca International. .In 2004, he was seconded to the People’s Republic of China as Vice President for Research and Development for AstraZeneca, China.

Apart from his academic and business career, Professor Haus has been active in many areas of Commerce, Industry and the financial services sector.  He was a non-executive Director of the Professional Provident Society for ten years, Deputy Chairman of the PPS Holding Company, and Chairman of both the PPS Holding Company and PPS Insurance Company.

Professor Haus is past Chairman of the Allergy Society of South Africa, a Director and Trustee of various other companies, was appointed Adjunct Professor (Faculty of Health Sciences, UCT) in 2000, and served on a World Health Organisation Task Force compiling guidelines for the Prevention of Asthma and Allergic Diseases.  He has worked closely with the Singapore based INSEAD Business School on the steering committee of an Asian initiative to introduce best business practice in medical R and D to the AstraZeneca group of companies in the Region, and has lectured at INSEAD on consumer branding, and at Cambridge University on Clinical Immunology.

Prof Haus has retained his professorial duties at the University of Cape Town. Currently, he is a Trustee of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa and Chairman of the Moments in Time Charitable Trust.  He is a Senior Consultant at Gateways Consulting, and practices clinical medicine in allergology with the Netcare group.  He was appointed Editor of the Journal “Current Allergy and Clinical Immunology” in 2012. 

At the meeting of the Recruitment and Selection Committee of the University of Pretoria in 2012, there was unanimous approval from all members that Dr Matt Haus should be awarded the status of Extraordinary Professor. His appointment to the University of Pretoria is intended to strengthen under- and post-graduate teaching in Allergology and to bring his significant experience in research to the Department of Paediatrics and the Faculty of Health Sciences. The University of Pretoria is strengthened by this appointment of a giant in academic medicine.