Shelina Moonsamy (54) from Johannesburg could not contain her excitement as she took the stage to graduate for her PhD degree in Medical Laboratory Science at the upcoming Durban University of Technology (DUT) 2024 Spring Graduation. The prestigious ceremony was held at the Durban Exhibition Centre on Thursday, 19 September 2024.

Moonsamy is currently employed as a medical technologist Level 3 at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (a division of the National Health Laboratory Services). She also holds a managerial role as the Laboratory Manager of the WHO Regional Reference Polio Laboratory.

“I provide technical and management support to many polio labs in the African Region,” she said proudly.

Speaking of her journey at DUT, Moonsamy shared that being a student had been a challenge at times, saying that some of the challenges she had faced included trying to balance between work responsibilities, PhD responsibilities and home responsibilities.

“Not having some approvals in time, having to constantly follow up and meeting deadlines at short notice were the top three of my gripes,” she said.

Moonsamy’s title of her thesis is: Assessing the burden of Hepatitis B in South Africa, predicting disease prevalence and modelling the impact of hepatitis B birth dose vaccination.

 “In this study, the objective was to assess HBV disease burden in the public health sector of South Africa through meticulous analyses of an extensive national dataset spanning 2015 to 2019. Additionally, aiming to model the potential impact of a birth dose of the HBV vaccine using country-specific HBV prevalence data obtained from our own testing conducted on women attending antenatal care in 2017,” she explained.

Moonsamy indicated that over the five years, the national HBV prevalence was 9.02%, declining gradually each year.

“Using a deterministic HBV transmission model to simulate the impact of a birth dose of the HBV vaccine, we estimated more than a three-fold reduction in chronic HBV infections and HBV-related deaths, specifically when considering new cases from initiation of our model. In essence, this represents a greater than three-fold reduction in HBV disease burden,” she said.

Moonsamy indicated that the findings are unique for South Africa given their national representation and country-specific model inputs.

“Despite the introduction of the HBV vaccine in 1995, hepatitis B remained highly endemic in South Africa. Adding a birth dose to the current HBV vaccination schedule and achieving optimal vaccine coverage rates will markedly reduce country HBV burden. Therefore the studies recommend prompt implementation of a birth dose of the HBV vaccine, together with increased efforts aimed at improving HBV vaccine coverage rates to optimal levels,” commented Moonsamy.

Her inspiration to pursue this study is an easy one.

“Being within the Centre for Vaccines and Immunology at NICD, a Centre also involved with Hepatitis B surveillance, I initially became involved with analysis of Hepatitis B data to provide surveillance statistics at epidemiological meetings and to the National Department of Health. Given the rates of Hepatitis B infection among infants and the fact that the country was among those who did not implement the birth dose vaccine as recommended by WHO, I thought I could look at having this policy implemented from the study I undertook,” she indicated.

Through a combination of efforts and tasks Moonsamy secured that her studies were achieved.

“I setup a work station at home so I could multitask when home. I worked late hours so I can fulfil my work responsibilities. My daughter was also doing her PhD so we were PhD buddies. My husband would do the cooking and he even went overboard to clean up after even though we had a helper. I also received tremendous support from my son, who is currently studying electrical engineering, my mom and my siblings.

I must say though that I still went on holidays and travelled for work when I needed to, especially when I had accomplished certain milestones but also when I knew I could still continue working whilst on holiday,” she shared.

Head of Department, Dr Joyce Nonhlanhla Mbatha share her congratulatory message.

“Congratulations Shelina Moonsamy for reaching this milestone, PhD degree in Medical Laboratory Science as a second person graduating with this degree since its inception. I know that a PhD academic journey is  a long, winding one full of various challenges. We, in the department of Biomedical and Clinical Technology and the Medical Laboratory Science profession are proud of your achievement, believing that it is going to add value to the profession and to the department. I hope that this qualification is a step in the direction of you becoming a renowned researcher in the field of Medical Science.”

Going forward, her aims in terms of her career path is that seeing that she loves mathematics and disease transmission dynamics, she aims to expand her knowledge on modelling of infectious disease and application thereof.

Moonsamy’s advice to students wishing following in her footsteps is to have passion for and dedication which is key.

“Stick to a task until it sticks to you-Beginners are many, finishers are few,”  she said.

Pictured: Shelina Moonsamy

Waheeda Peters