Why would a medical doctor give up a successful career as a clinician to pursue a career in public health, an area fraught with problems?
“There is no simple answer,” smiles Dr Mary Kawonga, who Âinitially intended to further her studies in paediatrics but eventually opted for a career in public health.
“I wanted to ensure that women get the health services they deserve,” Kawonga explains.
Public health is not given a high profile in the media or at medical school. Kawonga uses her lectures to spur young medical students to enter and ultimately excel in careers in public health. “We need women in there to fight from inside,” says Kawonga, the first black female to serve on the council of the College of Public Health Medicine of South Africa.
The soft-spoken dynamo is tackling some of the major health threats to women in her work and her research, focusing on cervical cancer screening and prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Her PhD examines the nature of public health interventions for HIV/Aids control. She also uses her research to improve the delivery of reproductive health services.
Kawonga trained as a specialist in public health medicine at the University of Natal in Durban and was admitted as a Fellow of the College of Public Health Medicine in 2000.
She currently holds a joint appointment as a public health medicine specialist with the Gauteng provincial health department and Wits University school of public health, where she is academic coordinator of the master of public health programme.