The South African-born Professor Hoosen “Jerry” Coovadia, the famous academic and anti-apartheid activist, passed away in the early hours of Thursday, October 4; as a pediatrician, I had the privilege of knowing and collaborating with him for over two years. Before that, I had known him as a health advocate during the apartheid regime in South Africa.
In 2019, Coovadia was interviewed in the most prestigious medical journal, The Lancet, as an icon of South African health. The article said that he was”the “Nelson Mandela of health.” This was to honor his determination to eradicate ailments that plagued children of South Africa, like malnutrition, measles, and HIV, as well as his participation in the field of health activism.
In 2014, as president of the South African Medical Research Council, I was honored to confer upon him with the SAMRC President’s Award to recognize his long-term commitment to child health, his contribution to the prevention of transmission from mother to child from HIV, and the immense impact that he had on the health sector in South Africa.
Jerry was the primary person to propose the use of antiretroviral therapy to stop the transmission of breast milk, which has since been a standard on the global scale. Jerry’s contribution to research that led to the reduction of HIV infection in children was so significant that, to my mind, it’s impossible to quantify it in any meaningful manner.
Who was Jerry Coovadia?
Jerry was born in Durban on the eastern coastline of South Africa in 1940…
He knew from an early age that he’d eventually become a physician. He completed a portion of his medical education in India before returning to South Africa, where he was exposed to the inhumane conditions of a system of health care that was two-tiered and saw the black South Africans bore the brunt of the burden of poor healthcare.
As a pediatrician, He excelled in academics, completing his training in immunology and later heading his own Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Natal.
While he was an academic, he gained notoriety in the struggle against apartheid.
The AIDS fight
I started cooperating alongside Jerry in the mid-90s. His and my paths would intersect throughout the following 20 years as we bear witness to the rise of HIV among children. He was employed by the King Edward Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal while I was working at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto.
In the coming decade, over the next decade, we will “cross horns” on the different interventions that are used to stop Mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
We were not always on the same page regarding ways to stop postpartum transmission via breastfeeding.
Although our approaches differed, we were united with our common aim of attempting to reduce the threat of HIV among our children whom we taught to look after.
His book Paediatrics, along with Child Health, was my Bible. Both my colleagues as well as I adored him as the king of child health and wellbeing within South Africa.
It was an honor to collaborate with him in research for the delivery of antiretroviral treatment as an approach to preventing the transmission of mother-to-child HIV.
We collaborated on studies that sought to determine the most cost-effective method to prevent pediatric HIV by using the smallest amount of antiretrovirals at a point when they were prohibitively costly. The two biggest were the PETRA study, evaluating various short courses of AZT and 3TC to interrupt perinatal transmission, and the SAINT trial, which assessed the role of Nevirapine as a drug that can prevent transmission from mother to child.
Over time, we have co-published these studies and also the results of the various interventions that minimize the risk of transmission of breast milk.
Active times
Before I began working alongside Jerry when I was a new physician, We were both health advocates. I was a member of the Health Workers Association, which was later changed to the South African Health Workers Congress. He was an active participant in the National Medical and Dental Association. He was the leader in discussions to combine both of these organizations.
I was impressed with his determination and vision for a fair health system that he channeled into his job as a pediatrician as well as his research as a scientist.
He taught us, young doctors, the importance that social engagement plays in the field of health and the fact that ill health is dependent on socio-economic and political influences. If we wanted to fulfill our job as doctors, then we must be able to tackle these issues in the same way as we did in areas where we dealt with sick children.
