This episode pits man’s best friend against one of man’s deadliest foes—rabies doesn’t play fetch nor does it leave many unscathed. Ruan speaks to one health champion and ID friend to many, Professor Lucille Blumberg, and they talk about the virus that turns loyal companions into lethal threats. How to diagnose it, how it's managed and most importantly how to prevent it.

About our Guest:

Professor Lucille Blumberg, MB BCH MMed (Clin Micro) ID (SA) FFTM (RCP Glasgow, travel medicine) DTM&H DOH DCH D.Sc. (Med) honoris.

She is a highly respected infectious diseases specialist and medical microbiologist, hailing from Johannesburg, who sits on many national and international expert groups. Her contribution to keeping the public safe from infectious disease has been hailed as the epitome of sustainable, groundbreaking research. She has honorary appointments at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), the Universities of Stellenbosch (Medical Microbiology) and University of Pretoria (Faculty of Veterinary Sciences), South Africa. Her focus is on outbreak prevention and response, emerging diseases, travel-related infections, the viral haemorrhagic fevers, malaria and zoonosis, especially rabies.

She is the current chair of the Strategic Advisory Group for Infectious Hazards for the WHO Emergencies Programme and a member of the scientific advisory group for the WHO Neglected Tropical Diseases programme. She is a longstanding member of the National Rabies Advisory Group in South Africa and is the former chair of the South African Malaria Elimination Committee (SAMEC). Prof Blumberg has been involved in the prevention, detection and response to several communicable disease outbreaks, including cholera, typhoid, rabies, the Viral Haemorrhagic Fevers (Lujo, Rift Valley fever, Ebola), influenza (pandemic A H1N1, and Avian Influenza A H5N2) and diphtheria.

Her special interests are malaria, rabies, other zoonoses, East African Trypanosomiasis, travel and tropical medicine and border health issues. She has worked with Right to Care as a Technical Scientific Advisor since 2021. She has recently been appointed to the editorial board of the Southern African Journal of Infectious Diseases. Other editorial positions include being African Advisor for the International Journal of Travel Medicine since 2018, and one of three editors for the International Journal of Infectious Diseases since 2017. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she established DATCOV, a national surveillance system for patients with COVID-19 who were hospitalised. 

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