Deputy President David Mabuza has described the death of world-renowned HIV scientist Prof Gita Ramjee due to Covid-19 complications as a “huge blow to the entirety of the health care sector and the global fight against HIV/Aids”.
Mabuza, who heads the SA National Aids Council, issued a statement on Wednesday after the news that Ramjee had died in a Durban hospital on Tuesday.
“In her, we have indeed lost a champion in the fight against the HIV epidemic, ironically at the hands of this global pandemic. In her honour, we should heed the call to flatten the curve by strengthening our responses to this global pandemic as well as continue the fight to achieve zero new HIV infections,” he said.
Ramjee was the chief specialist scientist and director of the SA Medical Research Council’s (SAMRC's) HIV Prevention Research Unit.
Mabuza’s statement came as many of her peers in the medical fraternity expressed their sadness.
SAMRC head Prof Glenda Gray described Ramjee’s death as tragic.