Dramowski Angela

Paediatric Infectious Diseases (PID) has been my interest and passion from the start of my medical career. Following my pediatric residency in South Africa, I was awarded a Fogarty-NIH International Clinical Research Fellowship (2009/10) to work with Professor Mark Cotton. I became the first PID fellow trained at Tygerberg Hospital in 2011. During my fellowship training I realized the need for intensified research in the field of Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) in South Africa. After graduating as a sub-specialist I joined the Stellenbosch University’s Academic Unit for Infection Prevention and Control, one of the only specialized units in the country, to develop my career and research interests. With my mentor (Prof Mark Cotton) now as the primary supervisor of my PhD, I commenced clinical research on healthcare-associated infection (HAI) in hospitalized children in Cape Town. This established me as one of the only African academics with expertise both in PID and IPC and has positioned me as a national opinion leader and advisor in this field. In 2012 I was awarded the inaugural Federation of Infectious Disease Societies of Southern Africa GSK research fellowship for a research proposal entitled “Investigation of non-vertical HIV transmission in children” which demonstrates the potential for non-maternal transmission of HIV through poor hospital infection control practices. In 2013 I became the first South African selected for the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America International Ambassadors programme. In support of my doctoral studies I was awarded a Discovery Foundation Academic Fellowship and a MRC Clinician Researcher Fellowship. In 2018 I received a career development award as part of the NIH’s Emerging Global Leader programme to conduct research on the prevention of neonatal sepsis in low-resource settings. I am the Cape Town site PI for the GARDP-funded study, NeoOBS: A prospective cohort study of sepsis in hospitalized neonates, and part of a global network of 20 neonatal units conducting neonatal sepsis and antimicrobial resistance research.