Bongani Mayosi

Bongani Mawethu Mayosi (28 January 1967 – 27 July 2018) was a South African professor of cardiology. He was the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town and an A-rated National Research Foundation researcher. His research interests included rheumatic fever, tuberculous pericarditis and cardiomyopathy. He was a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa and a former President of the College of Physicians of South Africa and he headed numerous other biomedical organisations during his career. Quotes He carried the burden of responsibility. He carried the burden of our ambitions, goals, hopes and dreams. We could project our loftiest ideals of character onto him, but we can also forget that we are just human. The most poignant thing we can learn from any hero is that they are human. What we can learn as a UCT student body, as UCT and as [the] rest of Africa, is that he maximised his life ... he left a candle burning for us to maximise our lives. Those of us who grew up with absentee fathers could see how he genuinely loved his daughter. As time went by, classes were allocated to the different grades. That was a problem for me ... I could not function unless Bongani was within eye view. They had to make special arrangements. The door had to be kept open so that I could see him. He carried the burden of responsibility. He carried the burden of our ambitions, goals, hopes and dreams. He was second to none as a clinician. He was loved by his patients who remembered his gentle and impeccable bedside manner. As a teacher he was legendary. As a leader, Bongani was awesome. His brand of leadership was honest, inspiring, full of integrity and characterised by creativity and innovation. He did not just call for change. He was change ... in his life and in his work. He set an example for us. As a leader, Bongani was awesome. His brand of leadership was honest, inspiring, full of integrity and characterised by creativity and innovation. About Bongani Mawethu Mayosi He was a compassionate and humble man, and it was these qualities that made him great, beyond his intellectual prowess. Prof Mayosi took the time to nurture students and mentees, to open doors for their development and success. He taught them to “lift as you rise”. He believed in them and so they believed in themselves. My heart was filled with tears of sadness and joy as I listened to Phindile Gina as she spoke while holding back tears. She promised with her fist in the air that they too would follow in his footsteps… we will be the clinicians, researchers and deans just like he was, she said to great applause from the rest of the PhD students. Of the 1400 doctors that we produce from South African universities, 1200 go on to work in the public healthcare system. The Lancet Series on the health of South Africans was a landmark report. Produced by a number of academics within South Africa, it recognized that in the first 15 years of the new democratic South Africa, in terms of health and the health system, the country had moved backwards. The South African Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, refers to this period as “backpedalling”. In the face of a rising epidemic of HIV and AIDS, the country delayed its implementation of an ARV program. The lifespan of South Africans at birth, in a period of 15 to 20 years, went down by nearly 20 years. In 1990, the average life expectancy of a South African at birth, was 70 years; in 2005 we hit around 50, due to the explosion of HIV and AIDS. In 2008, with a change of government, we recognized how it was important to describe the problem and provide solutions to the new government. In 2009 we invited the new minister of health to launch the report and the Minister implemented many of its suggestion over the subsequent three to four years. In 2012, we wrote a follow-up report, which showed that the interventions implemented by the Minster had begun to reverse the trend. Today, in terms of life expectancy, South Africans are gaining a year of life every year. In an interview South Africa is unique not only for the problem of HIV/AIDS and TB, but for three other health problems: issues at childbirth, a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the country; chronic non-communicable diseases, namely stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer; and lastly the problem of violence due to interpersonal and accidental injury. In each of these areas our rates are well above the global average. The Lancet report termed this the quadruple burden of disease and provided solutions to tackle it. South Africa is now leading the world in providing solutions to these problems and we are the go-to place for training. We focus on a number of areas. The foundation of our work is in clinical care, providing models for best care. At the Department of Medicine, in terms of the quadruple burden of disease, we address two major areas: the area of TB/HIV and AIDS, and the area of chronic non-communicable diseases. It has been a privilege for us to make decisive contributions in terms of care in those areas. Another area where we make a big contribution is the training of doctors and nurses. Our role is not only in training people to be technically competent, but in producing the next generation of thinkers, researchers and innovators. Working with the minister of health and people in industry, we have established our 1000 PhD program, where we identify the best and the brightest health professionals; putting them through research training so that they become leaders and thinkers who can solve the problems we face in South Africa. This is our unique contribution at the Department of Medicine: we are the place where the leaders learn. We are looking to build on our relationship with industry. We lead in the area of drug resistant TB, as well as diagnosis, and some of these innovations are having a direct impact on start-up companies. In Africa we have neglected non-communicable disease and focused on the treatment of acute infections. Health services have been designed to deal with acute problems. HIV has become a chronic disease, and some of the best examples of how to care for people this disease can be found in Africa. We now need to learn the lessons with regards to how to care properly for people with chronic diseases, and then make the process systemic and scale it up. Most African governments have now signed up to the UN and WHO political declaration regarding NCDs. At the level of the African Union there appears to be firm political commitment behind these goals. Our job is to see whether policy is being translated to programs, practice and favourable outcomes. This is where academics need to play their rightful place, tracking the effectiveness of such declarations. South Africa does have an NCD plan with ambitious targets; what is lacking is enforcement. South Africa is a centre of expertise when it comes to HIV and AIDS. When you look at funding from the National Institutes of the US and compare it to the scale of funding that comes to South Africa on HIV and AIDS, the numbers speak for themselves. Our researchers, such as Robin Wood, are the most cited in the world. Excellence is becoming generalized in medical science in the country. UCT must not stand alone, we must link with other institutions in South Africa. Crucially, as we rise in our quest to be world leaders, we must lift the entire South African healthcare system. External links Category:Physicians from South Africa Category:Cardiologists Category:Medical scientists Category:Academics from South Africa Category:1967 births Category:2018 deaths