An EconoTimes perspective

Olga Perovic

Principal Pathologist, National Institute for Communicable Diseases

Principal Pathologist, National Institute for Communicable Diseases A Prof/Dr Olga Perovic is a Principal Pathologist at the Centre for Healthcare-Associated Infections, Antimicrobial Resistance and Mycoses at National Institute for Communicable Diseases, a division of the NHLS. She is medical doctor with clinical microbiology speciality and is affiliated with Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at WITS. Her responsibilities include Antimicrobial Resistance Reference Laboratory, AMR surveillance, outbreak investigation, teaching and training. Professor Perovic leads Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) programs in South Africa. Prof Perovic is a principal investigator of numerous projects and she is involved in teaching and training of undergraduate, postgraduate and other related learners. She experiences a vast ranges of involvements in AMR field, from the basic antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) to the whole genome sequencing; from the bed site microbiology to the hospital antimicrobial stewardship programs; from infection control programs at hospitals to the national policy development; from the routine real time to the national AMR surveillance programs. Perovic is a chair of National Advisory Committee (NAC) for Antimicrobial Susceptibility at South African Society of Clinical Microbiology (SASCM). She is an expert in laboratory quality system and responsible for External Quality Assessment programs in bacteriology and antimicrobial susceptibility testing.