About Us

Aims of IeDEA Southern Africa

The overarching aims of IeDEA-SA are to conduct clinical, epidemiological and health services research in order to provide answers to the questions that clinicians, programs and ministries of health consider fundamental to HIV care and treatment strategies in Southern Africa; to inform HIV/AIDS, TB, cancer and mental health service delivery in the region, to increase the capacity for delivering antiretroviral therapy (ART), and, ultimately, to improve the prognosis of people living with HIV and AIDS in Southern Africa.

As the region with the greatest number of HIV+ adults and children and a sizable co-morbidity burden, the scientific agenda responds to the operational and clinical research priorities identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) and opinion leaders in the field and focuses on questions that cannot be answered by one cohort. IeDEA-SA’s potential is widely recognized by information consumers, including WHO and UNAIDS, and the HIV Modelling and MESH consortia. IeDEA-SA is also leading in innovations, from novel approaches to statistical modelling to linkages with other records including national death and cancer registries.

The specific aims of IeDEA-SA are:

1. To study outcomes along the continuum of HIV care in adults
2. To study outcomes in pregnant women, infants, children, and adolescents
3. To study non-communicable diseases (NCDs), hepatitis B and sexually transmitted infections (STIs)
4. To study the clinical and public health epidemiology of TB
5. To study cancer prevention, burden and care
6. To study mental health and substance use disorders

Principal Investigators


Newlands Clinic
Dr Cleophas Chimbetete

ISPM
PD Dr Eliane Rohner

ISPM
Prof Gilles Wandeler

UCT
Prof Mary-Ann Davies

Research Team

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Senior Research Fellow, ISPM

Statistician, ISPM

Senior Research Fellow, ISPM

Project Manager, UCT

Senior Research Officer, UCT

Research Assistant, ISPM

Participating Cohorts

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Aid for AIDS
  • Gary Maartens, Investigator
  • Cape Town, South Africa
  • Private sector managed-care HIV program
Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ)
  • Carolyn Bolton-Moore, Investigator
  • Lusaka, Zambia
  • Non-profit health care organization
Gugulethu (Desmond Tutu HIV Centre)
  • Robin Wood, Investigator
  • Cape Town, South Africa
  • Public sector primary health care clinic
  • Urban population

Students and Graduates

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  • Dickman Pangaume Gareta


    Dickman is a PhD student at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM), Graduate School of Health Sciences, University of Bern. His doctoral research focuses on developing novel record linkage methods to integrate HIV data and to better characterize the burden of HIV-related mortality in rural South Africa. He holds an MSc in Epidemiology from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

  • Tiwonge Chimpandule Chirwa


    Tiwonge Chimpandule Chirwa is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM), University of Bern. He joined the Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences (GCB) in April 2025. His research uses novel, AI‑digitized nationwide patient‑level records to assess Malawi’s integrated HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B testing, including the move to a three‑test HIV algorithm, the impact of hepatitis B vaccination and co‑infection patterns. He holds an MSc in Biostatistics from the University of Malawi and supports the Ministry of Health’s Directorate of HIV, Syphilis and Hepatitis B with design of national data systems, monitoring, surveillance, impact evaluation and decision support.

  • Ardele Mandiriri Ndanga


    Ardele is an epidemiologist and public health researcher with a focus on HIV and non-communicable diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ardele joined the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM), University of Bern, in 2023 as a PhD candidate in Epidemiology and Health Sciences; her doctoral work examines arterial hypertension epidemiology and management outcomes, and vascular health among people living with and without HIV. She currently supports multi-country projects within the IeDEA network on HIV and comorbidities. She holds an MSc in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

  • Carole Metekoua


    Carole is a PhD Candidate at the Graduate School for Health Sciences – University of Bern. Her project focuses on describing the epidemiology of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and its subtypes in relation to the HIV epidemic in South Africa. She holds a MSc in Public Health Informatics from the University of Witwatersrand.

  • John Andoh


    John joined the ISPM in November 2022 with the Cancer Research Group and with the University of Bern where he is doing his PhD. He is working on mathematical models evaluating various Cervical Cancer screening strategies, as well as their (cost-) effectiveness in Zambia. He obtained his MSc. Statistics from the University of Ghana.