Thandeka Moyo-Ndlovu, Health Reporter
I first met Dr Thandeka Moyo when organisers of an
international HIV Research for Prevention Conference had booked us into one
room at Grand Sheraton Hotel in Chicago, United States of America, thinking we
were one person.
I gained access to the room where she had already checked
in and to my surprise, I discovered that we shared the same name and surname.
She quickly pulled out a familiar green passport which
confirmed that she was indeed Zimbabwean like me. What a coincidence!
It took several calls and emails for the organisers to
realise that these two girls shared a first and second name but one was a
science scholar and the other a health journalist.
We laughed at the mistake and in no time, I figured that
Thandeka was not only my age but was also born and raised in the City of Kings
and Queens.
She went to Girls College in Bulawayo.
Later on in my room as I was preparing for the first day, I
learnt that Thandeka was one of the scientists who had dedicated her life to
finding a vaccine for HIV.
She was one of the presenters who had travelled all the way
to share insights on the feasibility of ending HIV and Aids and I just had to
listen to her presentations, to give her love, from Bulawayo of course.
Bulawayo remains one of the HIV hotspots in Zimbabwe with a
HIV prevalence of 14,3 percent.
Despite measures to ensure people living with HIV are put
on the life saving antiretroviral medication, Bulawayo still has about 33 000
people in need of ART, according to AVERT statistics.
Since the emergence of the pandemic, scientists, civil
organisations and governments have rallied in an effort to find a cure for the
disease which claimed the lives of 22 000 Zimbabweans in 2018.
“Before I reached my teenage years in the 1990s, I already
knew there was a ‘terrible disease’ that could not be named, and which was
claiming the lives of people around me. When someone died and nobody freely
offered the cause, everyone knew not to ask,” says the 30-year-old University
of Cape Town (UCT) doctoral graduate from Sunninghill suburb.
She says her love for science became imminent during her
high school days at Girls College where Biology was her favourite subject.
“In the 2000s, things began to change. Antiretroviral
therapy was more widely available, and more and more HIV-positive people were
living healthy lives. But still, the stigma continued. This raised my
curiosity. What is this disease, what causes it and why is there a stigma
around it?” she asked.
Dr Moyo says as a young woman growing up in Zimbabwe, she
has been privy to the evolution of HIV/Aids in the country over the past years.
“The stigma towards HIV makes me angry, why should we
discriminate? I got into HIV research to find a vaccine to prevent people from
getting it but I also stand to say that it is not a death sentence and if one
takes their ART as told to by their doctor, they can live a long healthy life,”
she says.
“I continue to hope and advocate for the stigma associated
with HIV/Aids to be eradicated, even before the virus itself is eliminated!
Those infected with HIV can live long, healthy lives on treatment and with
consistent use, ensuring that with undetectable viral loads they will no longer
transmit the virus to others.”
She adds: “An HIV vaccine may be the most effective tool to
completely eradicate the virus and therefore I continue to work in this field
with the aim of contributing towards this important goal.”
Dr Moyo has been a post-doctoral research fellow since 2018
at the HIV Virology Laboratory at the Centre for HIV and STIs for the National
Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) based in South Africa.
Her PhD thesis which she completed in December 2017 was
entitled The role of envelope compactness and glycosylation in HIV-1 resistance
to neutralising antibody responses. She has a Masters (Med) in Clinical Science
and Immunology from UCT where she researched on the screening of neutralising
antibodies against a resistant HIV-1 strain.
From October 2016 to March 2017, Dr Moyo was at the
Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, where she was also researching
on HIV-related issues.
She attained her Bachelor of Science degree with
distinction from Rhodes University in Biochemistry and Microbiology in 2011
after completing her studies at Girls’ College. According to Dr Moyo, Bulawayo
remains the warmest and precious place on planet earth. She visits home
frequently and vows to stick to her Bulawayo roots which motivates her to work
hard in all her endeavours.
“I am proud to be from Bulawayo and it will always be home.
Nothing beats the childhood fond memories of wanting to drink from that
Coca-Cola bottle during the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair and going to the
Centenary Park at Christmas to see the lights,” she laughs.
Dr Moyo enjoys the simple things in life like reading and
running and so far, has done two half-marathons: the Mandela Remembrance Day
Run and the Soweto Half-Marathon. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, she is now
involved in the vaccine research.
“So, I continue to do that with my work at the NICD, in a
wonderful lab headed up by two phenomenal women who have been role models to me
for many years even before I worked there, Professor Penny Moore and Professor
Lynn Morris. We are actually doing Covid-19 research and we hope to learn how
different people’s immune systems respond to the virus specifically antibody
responses which are known to be protective and important in good vaccines and
hopefully we contribute to the science community coming up with successful
prevention tools,” she said.
To young Zimbabwean girls, Dr Moyo emphasises the need for
them to believe that girls can also fly high in the world of science. “I like
to emphasise that young ladies can do it. We can be incredible scientists; we
can run our own labs and make great scientific discoveries. Do not lose hope.
Don’t let anything stop you. Work hard at school to get good grades and apply
for all the scholarships you can. STEM isn’t for only boys and it is not too
hard for girls,” she said. Chronicle
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