Background

I am currently studying towards my Masters degree at the Africa Centre Virology Laboratory. My research involves investigating the virologic failure and the spectrum of drug resistance mutations in a paediatric ART programme in Rural KZN, SA. We used the open access Southern African Treatment Resistance Network (SATuRN) drug resistance genotyping system in this study to show that genotyping to assess resistance patterns and to guide treatment switches can be done affordably in resource limited settings such as ours.

HIV drug resistance levels in adults failing first-line antiretroviral therapy in an urban and a rural setting in South Africa.
Rossouw TM, Nieuwoudt M, Manasa J, Malherbe G, Lessells RJ, Pillay S, Danaviah S, Mahasha P, van Dyk G, de Oliveira T, HIV Med. (2017), 2016 :doi: 10.1111/hiv.12400.

Increasing HIV-1 drug resistance between 2010 and 2012 in adults participating in population-based HIV surveillance in rural KwaZulu-Natal South Africa.
Manasa J, Danaviah S, Lessells RJ, Elshareef M, Tanser F, Wilkinson E, Pillay S, Mthiyane H, Mwambi H, Pillay D, de Oliveira T, AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses (2016), 32(8):763-769.

Analysis of Dominant HIV Quasispecies Suggests Independent Viral Evolution Within Spinal Granulomas Coinfected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and HIV-1 Subtype C.
Danaviah S, de Oliveira T, Gordon M, Govender S, Chelule P, Pillay S, Naicker T, Cassol S, Ndung'u T, AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses (2016), :doi:10.1089/aid.2015.0189.

Evidence of Long-Lived Founder Virus in Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission.
Danaviah S, de Oliveira T, Bland R, Viljoen J, Pillay S, Tuaillon E, Van de Perre P, Newell ML, PLoS One (2015), 10(3):e0120389.

Drug resistance in children at virological failure in a rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, cohort.
Pillay S, Bland RM, Lessells RJ, Manasa J, de Oliveira T, Danaviah S., AIDS Res Ther. (2014), 11(1):3. doi: 10.1186/1742-6405-11-3.

An Affordable HIV-1 Drug Resistance Monitoring Method for Resource Limited Settings.
Manasa J, Danaviah S, Pillay S, Padayachee P, Mthiyane H, Seebregts C, Rinke De Wit TF, Viljoen J, Katzenstein D, De Oliveira T , Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE) (2014), (85):e51242, doi:10.3791/51242.

Dried Blood Spot HIV-1 RNA Quantification Using Open Real-Time Systems in South Africa and Burkina Faso.
Viljoen J, Gampini S, Danaviah S, Valea D, Pillay S, Kania D, Meda N, Newell ML, Van de Perre P, Rouet F; for the World Health Organization/ANRS 1289 Kesho Bora Study Group, Acquir Immune Defic Syndr (2010), 55(3):290-8.