PANDA-SA

JOHAN SCHOEMAN was raised in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. He studied Medicine at Stellenbosch University (SU) obtaining the MBChB degree in 1971 (Fig. 1). As a medical student AU:3 he often worked as volunteer in rural areas during holidays and after graduating from medical school, he obtained valuable clinical experience by working as a medical officer at the Nkhoma Mission Hospital in Malawi for 18 months. Johan and a senior nursing sister traveled over 3000 km, mostly dirt-road journey, to Nkhoma in an old Volkswagen Beetle. Anecdotally, the medical officer post became vacant at short notice after the previous incumbent was dismissed for operating on a dog in the septic theater of the hospital. Johan’s interest in tuberculosis was probably sparked by being given the responsibility for the tuberculosis clinic while stationed at Nkhoma Hospital.

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