Dr Tongai Gibson Maponga is a virological scientist who started his professional life as a biomedical laboratory scientist. He has worked in Zimbabwe, eSwatini and South Africa. He was responsible for the establishment of an in-country capacity to perform HIV early infant diagnosis (HIV EID) in eSwatini, working in close collaboration with the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI). This had a huge impact, reducing the turnaround time from sample collection to issuing results and enabling the timely administration of antiviral therapy to HIV-infected infants. His role was setting up the commercial laboratory assay and ensuring the quality of results by enrolling the laboratory in external quality assurance schemes for HIV EID.
Dr Maponga's main research interest is in the epidemiology and sequelae of chronic viral hepatitis but being versatile he has performed and participated in scientific studies on a range of viral diseases including SARS-CoV-2 and CMV. He is also passionate about teaching and training of younger scientists. His MSc research investigated the prevalence and molecular character of HBV infection among South African pregnant women. The results revealed that HIV co-infection was associated with increased infectivity of HBV which also increased the risk of vertical transmission. These results helped to advocate for policy change. South Africa’s vaccination policy now directs that infants should receive the HBV birth dose vaccine. His PhD was on the pathogenesis of HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma in the context of HIV. The results showed that HIV-infected patients present at a younger age with HCC compared to those without HIV. However, survival remained poor, regardless of HIV infection status.
Since 2018, Dr Maponga has also been working in collaboration with Professor Philippa Matthews, based at the Francis Crick Institute, in investigating the viral and host factors associated with control of hepatitis B infection in patients in South Africa and the United Kingdom. This collaboration has resulted in several publications, including a paper that describes HBV resistance to tenofovir in some patients. Since 2021, he has also been involved in research on SARS-CoV-2 playing a leading role for the Stellenbosch University/ National Health Laboratory Service Tygerberg Virology Laboratory part of the Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA), using Oxford Nanopore Technologies sequencing on clinical samples from Cape Town and other areas. Our results have informed several of the public health measures that have been taken in addressing the pandemic. Dr Maponga also have research interests in virus discovery and other hepatitis viruses including hepatitis D virus and hepatitis E virus.
