Research Projects
Coronavirus Disease 2019 and Endothelialitis
In the era of the global COVID-19 pandemic, questions remain about the pathophysiology, and the severity markers and potential treatment targets. In high HIV prevalence settings, the burden of COVID-19 is yet to be documented, and how these two pandemics will collide and interact remains to be seen…
Robots to contain the spread COVID-19
The spread of COVID-19 can be contained by taking appropriate measures - like wearing of masks, social distancing, use of hand sanitizers, staying indoors if someone has symptoms of COVID-19 etc. From public health perspective there is a need to monitor if an individual is following the protocols…
Representations of COVID-19 by the Mapula Embroidery Project
We have commissioned 14 embroidered panels from the Mapula Embroidery Project in the Winterveld, just north of Pretoria. The idea is that the making of the works will provide project members with opportunities to convey their observations about the impact of the disease on their lives and community…
Patterns of reilience amongst South Africans during COVID-19
During this time of a global pandemic, individuals all over the world are experiencing some sort of acute stress, uncertainty and anxiety (Presti, McHugh, Gloster, Karekla,
& Hayes, 2020; Schimmenti, Billieux, & Vladan, 2020; Shah, Kamrai, Mekala, Mann, & Desai, 2020; Wallace…
Review of Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence and Nature-inspired Computing Models towards Accurate Detection of COVID-19 Pandemic Cases and Contact Tracing
This review paper has explored big data, artificial intelligence and nature-inspired computing models for detection of the COVID-19 pandemic cases, and for contact tracing in the current pandemic.
Investigating the effectiveness of COVID-19 risk communication in mitigating the disaster, a Bloemfontein perspective
For the past years, the South African disaster management fraternity has invested significantly in disaster response and less in disaster risk reduction, in particular risk communication. Such activities transpired since the promulgation of the Disaster Management Act 57 of 2002 and the National…
South African social media users COVID-19 health information seeking and coping during lockdown.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown implemented to prevent the spread of the virus has created a crisis in the economy and in education as well as posing a challenge for public health. During public health crises as what we are currently experiencing, an immense and immediate need for…
UJ/HSRC Covid-19 Democracy survey
In order to capture the nature and the impact of Covid-19 on South African society, the University of Johannesburg’s Centre for Social Change (CSC) and the Developmental, Capable and Ethical State (DCES) research division at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) undertook an online cross-…
WASTEWATER-BASED EPIDEMIOLOGY FOR COVID-19 DETECTION IN WASTEWATER
With the economic and practical limits of medical screening for SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 coming sharply into focus worldwide, scientists are turning now to wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) as a potential tool for assessing and managing the pandemic. This approach is built on the knowledge that some…
DETECTION AND MONITORING OF SARS-CoV-2 RNA FRAGMENTS IN WASTEWATER USING A MALDI-TOF MASS SPECTROMETER
Wastewater monitoring has been successfully used to identify illicit drug hotspots, and track and provide early warnings of occurrences of pathogenic viruses such as Hepatitis A and Norovirus. Likewise, there is a potential value in using wastewater surveillance to monitor the existence and spread…
Neuropsychological Sequelae in Survivors of Severe COVID-19: A Research Proposal
Accumulating data confirms that coronaviruses are not restricted to the respiratory system and that they are able to invade the central nervous system leading to neurological disorders. Nonetheless, studies to date of COVID-19 have primarily focussed on morbidity and/or pulmonary function, but…
Dietary habits and health outcomes of African populations during COVID-19 lockdown
The objective of this research is to comparatively assess the changes in dietary habits of various populations during the COVID-19 lockdown and to also determine the effect this has on people’s health. As a result of the lockdown situation to combat the spread of COVID-19, movements have been…