Tafadzwa Dhokotera

December 11, 2018

Tafadzwa is currently completing her MSc degree in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of the Witwatersrand. Whilst studying for the degree, she has concurrently been on a Cancer Epidemiology Fellowship with the South African National Cancer Registry working on a project titled, “The Burden of cancers attributable to HIV in the South African Public Health Sector, 2004-2014: a record linkage study.” This project is a sub-study within the South African HIV Cancer Match study, an IEDEA supported record linkage project. The sub-study aimed to determine the additional cancer risk that individuals with HIV have compared to those who are HIV negative. Her findings showed that people living with HIV had a higher risk for AIDS defining, eye, skin and anogenital cancers. For her PhD, she intends to focus on evaluating the effectiveness of the South African cervical cancer screening guidelines in the control of cervical cancer. Cervical cancer remains the major cause of cancer related deaths amongst women in South Africa despite having a screening programme since 2000.