Katekani Ngobeni: Environmental health specialist takes up Covid-19 fight

Senior researcher Katekani Ngobeni has used her knowledge and love for the field of personal protective equipment (PPE) to bring calm to public healthcare facilities as she trains, advises and guides government on how to contain the spread of infections during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ngobeni, 34, is an environmental health specialist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), specialising in infection prevention and control and forms part of a team of young researchers who are funded by the Centre for Disease Control to offer support on coronavirus infectious control to national department of health facilities and partners.

“Healthcare workers need critical information on respiratory infections to protect themselves against Covid-19. I specialise in PPE. Through my research background, I guide them and advise them.

“I sometimes give training on generic infection control such as how to wash hands properly and how to wear PPE. With regards to Covid-19, I have been training, giving information and support to government.”

As a girl growing up in Ka’Ndengeza outside Giyani, Limpopo, she developed a passion for wanting to solve issues in her village such as sanitation and proper running water.

But her love for environmental health was sparked in Grade 11 by a family friend whom Ngobeni saw as the perfect image of success.

“My mom had a lot of friends and one of them had a daughter who was an environmental health practitioner. She had the perfect image of an independent woman. Seeing her and admiring her, I managed to do environmental health at the University of Johannesburg [UJ],” she said.

After completing her BTech degree, she got an internship at the City of Johannesburg which led to a permanent position, where her role was to inspect waste management facilities to ensure they were compliant. She was then offered a permanent position at the metro municipality.

Her career boomed two years later when she was appointed to the top position of chief waste management officer at the Gauteng department of health. Ngobeni was only 23 years old at the time.

“In university, I would engage in forums about women empowerment which was useful when doing public speaking and putting together seminars. That came in handy when I had to apply it in the work environment. It helped me catapult to a higher level compared to my peers.

“It was quite an achievement to be in that position after only two years of experience. I guess they trusted me based on how I performed in my previous job.”

She was thrown into the deep-end a year later when she joined the CSIR as an infection prevention and control specialist, a field she had no experience in.

“I had to re-educate myself when I joined CSIR. I had never been in a research environment before.

“CSIR is very big on mentorship and has a wealth of people with experience. It is almost like a gold mine of minds. I was mentored on tuberculosis [TB] infection control. I interacted with key TB role players, not only at CSIR, and was able to gain extensive knowledge and experience in PPE, which is what I fell in love with. I gravitated to PPE against airborne infections.”

Her work involved giving support to government and the healthcare sector on how to deal with and fight TB by assisting in training staff in the correct use of PPE, while helping design facilities to ensure a safe working environment.

With a master’s degree through UJ to explore the use of respiratory protection devices in low-income healthcare settings, Ngobeni was prepared for the current pandemic, she said.

Her work and research was presented at the first South African Covid-19 conference in February this year, attended by about 250 healthcare professionals.

“My family is very proud. My siblings, nieces and nephews look up to me and say ‘we want to be like Sis Kati one day’.

“The same way that family friend impacted me by seeing her being an independent woman, I am hoping to do the same for my siblings, nieces and nephews. I would like that lady to know that I am here today because of the seed she planted in me that I can be what I want to be.”

– rorisangk@citizen.co.za

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