HIV/AIDS, STDs & STIs

Biography

Michelle Moorhouse graduated from Wits University in South Africa, and qualified as a GP anaesthetist. Then, like many of her peers, switched her professional track to the management of HIV. Michelle co-founded Triple M Research, placing Port Elizabeth firmly on the map as one of the first HIV clinical trial centers in the Eastern Cape. Michelle went on to found the HIV journal club in PE, which later became the local chapter of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society. In 2003 Michelle was awarded an Honorary Clinical Fellowship at the Royal Free Hospital in London. She has also worked in the pharmaceutical industry, holding senior advisory posts at Abbott and Boehringer, she led the UK launch of Tipranavir in 2005, and was medical director at Novartis Vaccines and acting head of HIV therapeutics at GSK. Whilst working in the UK, Michelle earned the respect of many leading internationally renowned HIV clinicians. Michelle returned to South Africa in 2007, where she re-established her general/HIV practice - much to the excitement of a number of patients who started ARV treatment under her management many years earlier! Michelle went on to found a research centre that focused on HIV clinical trials, and also provided principle investigator services to local CROs. Consulting at a local clinic in Motherwelltownship for IYDSA, an Eastern Cape based NPO, signaled a change in Michelle’s career. This branch of public health brought her closer to the other realities of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, providing an opportunity to play a greater part in tackling the disease that she has dedicated her career to so passionately. She later joined full-time, initially as Clinical Advisor, and then Technical Lead Research and Training, proudly contributing to the NGO's rapid growth, rebranding to Beyond Zero, and becoming one of the leading HIV/AIDS focused NPOs in the Eastern Cape. In 2012, Michelle was elected to the inaugural Board of Directors of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society, devoting much of her time to organisational development, supporting new treatment guidelines, conceptualising a new corporate membership programme, and of course, a little bit of activism against HIV/AIDS quackery(!), and supporting the biennial Clinicians Society Conference She is also member of the Editorial Boards of HIV Nursing Matters magazine, and the MRC AfroAIDSinfo portal, as well as a member of MedDigital Expert Panel and HIV Physicians Panel. In September 2014, Michelle took up an exciting position as Senior Clinician at Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (RHI), and relocated to Johannesburg. In this role, she is actively engaged in clinical work, research and teaching, as well as sitting on National HIV guideline committees, advising the National Department of Health, training the master trainers of the 9 provinces on new guidelines, to mention a few of her responsibilities. Michelle has recently been appointed to the national Third Line ART Committee, which reviews patients failing their second line regimen (or beyond) and advises regarding their further management for the National Department of Health. Michelle is particularly interested in ARV resistance, helping HIV affected couples have healthy babies, and sharing her HIV knowledge through talks, workshops and training.

Research Interest

HIV