Dr Charlotte Schutz and Dr Kyla Comins

Host: Prof Graeme Meintjes

Charlotte Schutz is a clinician researcher who worked in public sector facilities for 10 years before transitioning into clinical research which she has been doing full-time since 2011.

She has completed an MPH (Clinical research) and PhD and is interested in HIV-associated co-infections such as tuberculosis and cryptococcosis. She has worked on various studies investigating optimal treatment strategies for HIV-related cryptococcal meningitis. The most recent trial, Ambition-CM, was completed in 2021 and has informed WHO guidelines on treatment for HIV-associated cryptococcal meningitis. She will present the results of the Ambition-CM trial at this seminar.

Kyla Comins is a clinical researcher with a background in primary care and public health. She has been working in clinical trials since 2015, first in tuberculosis, particularly drug-resistant tuberculosis, and now in cryptococcal meningitis since joining UCT in 2019. She holds and MSc in infectious diseases from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and her particular areas of interest are HIV-associated TB and cryptococcosis. She is the UCT site co-principal investigator for the EFFECT trial and will be presenting the rationale for and outline of this trial