Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
07 January 2018 Photo Charl Devenish
Researcher tackling drug-resistant TB through molecular methods
Dr Anneke van der Spoel van Dijk is invested in contributing to the global effort of stopping TB by 2035.

The work of Dr Anneke van der Spoel van Dijk investigates the spread of TB in the Free State population using techniques such as next generation sequencing, spoligotyping and MIRU-VNTR typing. Dr Van der Spoel van Dijk, a senior medical scientist in the Department of Medical Microbiology at the University of the Free State (UFS) also looks at drug resistance in her research. This work informs decisions about how best to treat patients with multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB). 

She employs rapid molecular techniques to track one of Africa’s most serious diseases, tuberculosis (TB). 

Drug resistance
Scientists assist the National Health Laboratory Service and Department of Health in trying to refine the diagnostic tools to identify these cases earlier. Dr Van der Spoel van Dijk explains: “Until recently, it took up to two years to fine-tune treatment decisions for patients with MDR-TB. Patients get a cocktail of anti-TB drugs, but it takes time to find the right combination. Re-infection and relapse (patients stopping treatment for several reasons) add to the diagnostic and treatment management challenges.

Enormous impact
“Now doctors can reduce the time needed for diagnostic certainty to about seven days, while new drugs allow reduction of treatment from more than 18 to nine months. This can have an enormous impact on the life of many patients.”

Dr Van der Spoel van Dijk’s work forms part of research in the faculty looking at resistance development in TB strains. She is currently also doing her doctoral thesis on the differences and incidence of MDR-TB among adolescents versus adults. Dr Van der Spoel van Dijk says: “It is a complicated picture, but we hope to unravel it to support better diagnostic tools and patient care.”

As part of the National Health Laboratory Service, her department is playing an important role in TB diagnostics and the training of scientists and future pathologists. “Our work is contributing to the global vision to stop TB by 2035,” Dr Van der Spoel van Dijk says.

News Archive

Memorial lecture: Language and language activism in a time of transformation.
2005-05-11

The Faculty of the Humanities at the University of the Free State (UFS) will present the 24th DF Malherbe Memorial Lecture on Wednesday 18 May 2005 at 19:00 in the CR Swart Auditorium on campus.

 

The lecture will be delivered by Proof. Hennie van Coller and Jaap Steyn and the title is “Language and language activism in a time of transformation”.

 

Prof van Coller is a distinguished professor and head of the Department of Afrikaans and Nederlands, German and French at UFS. Prof Van Coller has had more than 100 academic articles published in accredited journals and books; he has been author, co-author or editor of 17 books, and has delivered more than 50 lectures at conferences in South Africa and abroad. He has been awarded the Gustav Preller Prize by the SA Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns and the Elizabeth Eybers Prize.  Prof van Coller was recently elected as chairperson of the Akademie.

 

Prof Steyn has written numerous articles in academic journals, a collection of poems, and several prose works, including Tuiste in eie taal, a study in the politics of language, and biographies of NP van Wyk Louw, MER and PJ Cillié. His work has been widely acclaimed.  Among his many awards are the following from the SA Academy: the CJ Langenhoven Prize for linguistics, the Stals Prize for historiography, the NP van Wyk Louw medallion for a valuable contribution to a field of study; the Elisabeth Eybers Prize and the Eugène Marais Prize for a debut work (the volume of poems Die grammatika van liefhê).

 

Enquiries can be directed to Ms Joan Nel at (051) 401-9301.

 

Media release

 

Issued by:                     Lacea Loader

                                    Media Representative

                                    Tel:  (051) 401-2584

                                    Cell:  083 645 2454

                                    E-mail:  loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za

 

11 May 2005

 

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept