HIGHER EDUCATION TODAY - INFECTIOUS DISEASES Guests: Professor Gary Maartens, Clinician-Researcher in Infectious Diseases, University of Cape Town, and Peter Mehlape, Director - Global Health, BD Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa Host: Steven Roy Goodman Original Air Date: 5 October 2015 In this episode of Higher Education Today, Steven asks the question of why old infectious diseases are still around and why new ones keep coming up. This a complex question but it can be attributed to people being more and more antibiotic-resistant. The ability to control bacterial infection is decreasing because of the overuse of antibiotics. New diseases usually come from animals. There are hundreds of thousands of new pathogens in the animal kingdom that could affect humans, says Gary Maartens. WHO says healthcare facilities need to dispose of equipment in a safe manner to eliminate unnecessary diseases. For those wanting to be doctors, the process is quite different depending on where you are in the world. In the US one needs to go to college first before going to medical school. In South Africa you go straight from high school to medical school. The number of doctors and nurses needed is greater than what is produced, due to brain drain, lack of resources and the finite number who actually train as doctors worldwide. In South Africa the topic of traditional healers and doctors is a very complex one. There is no one group for all traditional healers, which makes the conversation a lot harder to have. Also, doctors and healers have different methods and see the act of healing in different ways. The business model of pharmaceuticals does not always work for developing countries.