Pretoria – The Department of Health has congratulated bioinformatics scientist, Professor Tulio de Oliveira, “on his continued recognition and praise for his sterling genomic sequencing work that led to the discovery of the Omicron variant of Covid-19”.
Already globally acclaimed, Prof Tulio has been praised by speakers at the ongoing World Health Summit in Berlin, Germany.
Deputy Minister of Health Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, leading the South Africa delegation to the summit, said the country was fortunate to have scientists like Prof Tulio, whose hard scientific work continues to break new grounds.
“We are so thrilled to have such globally recognised scientists like Tulio whose work greatly helped our country and the World Health Organization to detect new variants, and also understand their circulation in order to adapt our response strategies accordingly and to anticipate the new waves,” said Dr. Dhlomo.
The deputy minister said the successful management of the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa, is attributed to strong collaboration between government, scientific community, private sector, and other stakeholders.
Dr. Dhlomo also expressed his gratitude to another local scientist from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, Dr. Natalie Mayet for a great presentation during the summit, which summarised the role and excellent work by Ministerial Advisory Committees during the peak of the pandemic.
The World Health Summit is the unique international strategic forum for global health which strengthens exchange, stimulates innovative solutions to health challenges, fosters global health as a key political issue and promotes the global health debate in the spirit of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The 2022 Summit will focus on “making the choice for health” by reflecting on the most pressing topics, including investment for health and well-being; climate change and planetary health; architecture for pandemic preparedness; digital transformation for health and global health for peace.
Today (Monday 17 October 2022) will on the side-lines of the summit, deliver a presentation on the sustainable pharmaceutical manufacturing in Africa – towards the global procurement of African-manufactured medical products.
About Professor Tulio de Oliveira
Professor Tulio de Oliveira is a Brazilian, Portuguese, and South African permanent resident professor of bioinformatics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and Stellenbosch University, South Africa, and associate professor of global health at the University of Washington.
He has studied outbreaks of chikungunya, dengue, hepatitis B and C, HIV, SARS-CoV-2, yellow fever and Zika. During the Covid-19 pandemic he led the team that confirmed the discovery of the Beta variant of the Covid-19.
Prof. Tulio de Oliveira received his BSc Honours at the University of Natal, South Africa and MSc/PhD at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN, South Africa.
*Source Wikipdia
