Zinhle Mthombothi, MSc

Junior Researcher

Zinhle Mthombothi is a Junior Researcher at the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (SACEMA) and a PhD candidate at Stellenbosch University. Her doctoral research focuses on evaluating the spatial and temporal effects of spatial repellents in disrupting mosquito-borne disease transmission.​ Beyond her PhD work, Zinhle contributes to several public health modeling initiatives, including utilizing wastewater data to estimate the effective reproduction number (Rt) for South Africa, assessing the potential magnitude of poliovirus outbreaks in Southern Africa, and participating in systematic and scoping reviews on infectious disease modeling.​

She serves as a faculty member of the International Clinics on Infectious Disease Dynamics and Data (ICI3D), contributing to capacity building through her teaching during the Clinic on Meaningful Modeling of Epidemiological Data (MMED) and the Clinic on Dynamical Approaches to Infectious Disease Data (DAIDD). Additionally, she co-leads SACEMA’s short course, Introduction to R: Management, Exploration, and Communication of Data. Zinhle is also an active member of SACEMA’s Modelling and Analysis Response Team.

Project title

Examining spatial and temporal effects of a spatial repellant during a clinical trial in Iquitos, Peru

Supervisor(s)

Dr Cari van Schalkwyk, Prof Robert Reiner