Health Ministry commends Prof Tulio on his continued global praises
Pretoria: The Ministry of Health congratulates one of the globally acclaimed bioinformatics scientist, Prof Tulio de Oliveira on his continued recognition and praises for his sterling genomic sequencing work that led to the discovery of Omicron variant of COVID-19.
Prof Tulio was praised by speaker after speaker at the World Health Summit currently underway in Berlin, Germany.
The Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo who led the country's delegation to the 2022 Summit said the country is fortunate to have scientists like Prof Tulio whose hard scientific work continues to break new grounds and put the country on the map.
“We are so thrilled to have such globally recognised scientists like Tulio whose work great 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 Deputy Minister Dhlomo.
According to Dr Dhlomo, the successful management of the pandemic in South Africa, is attributed to strong collaboration between government, scientific community, private sector and other stakeholders.
The Deputy Minister Dhlomo also expressed his gratitude to another local scientist from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, Dr Natalie Mayet for 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.
The Deputy Minister Dhlomo will tomorrow (Monday, 17 October) 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.
For more information and media enquiries, please contact:
Mr Foster Mohale
Health Departmental Spokesperson
Cell: 0724323792
Email: Foster.mohale@health.gov.za
Mr Doctor Tshwale
Media Liaison Officer for Health Minister
Cell: 063 657 8487
Email: Doctor.Tshwale@health.gov.za
