...the challenging circumstances in low resource settings are often overlooked by scientists in affluent countries. - Aletta E. Schutte

When people think of Africa, they mainly focus on the significant burden of infectious diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. The health systems are often crippled by the high cost in treating these conditions.

From a young age I was fascinated with biology and health sciences, and originally wanted to study medicine. When funding for my studies became an issue, I decided to study a general BSc degree with Human Physiology as my major. I have never looked back and ended up working in clinical population-based studies, general epidemiology and public health with a specific focus on hypertension (high blood pressure) and cardiovascular disease. By choosing this direction of work I am not limited to helping just one patient at a time, but instead I am able to contribute towards treating entire populations at a given time.

I was confronted with heart disease very early on. My father only knew his father for two years, and at six I thought I was farewelling my 38-year-old father at his hospital bed. Fortunately, medicine pulled him through in the early eighties.