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Sarentha Chetty

Dr

Sarentha Chetty

Senior Lecturer

TELEPHONE
031 260 8269

EMAIL
Chettys4@ukzn.ac.za

BIOSKETCH
Dr Sarentha Chetty is a senior lecturer in pharmacology in the Department of Pharmacy at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a visiting senior lecturer at the University of Witwatersrand. She has extensive experience as a community and hospital clinical pharmacist in both the UK and South Africa, and has also worked as a clinical trials pharmacist at the Centre for the Aids Program and Research in South Africa (CAPRISA). In addition, she has served as an executive member of the KwaZulu-Natal Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) Committee.Dr Chetty holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm) from Rhodes University, an MSc in Molecular Biology of Infectious Diseases from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a PhD from the University of Nottingham. She further enhanced her expertise by completing postdoctoral fellowships in medicinal and computational chemistry at the University of Nottingham and the University of KwaZulu-Natal.Dr Chetty’s research is in medicinal chemistry, clinical pharmacy and pharmacy practice. Her research interests are centred on infectious diseases, including HIV, tuberculosis (TB), bacterial, and fungal infections. She is particularly focused on improving rational medicine use through antimicrobial stewardship and strengthening health systems in hospitals and community pharmacies to improve clinical outcomes for patients. Dr Chetty is also deeply invested in the scholarship of teaching and learning, researching innovative methods to advance health sciences education.In 2020, she was awarded MRC SIR grant to further her work in antimicrobial stewardship. A dedicated mentor, Dr Chetty supervises postgraduate students at the honours, master’s, and PhD levels, and actively collaborates with national health bodies, academic institutions, and the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS). Her work has been presented at national and international conferences, and she serves as an external examiner and a reviewer for various academic journals.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
  • Antimicrobial stewardship
  • HIV
  • Tuberculosis
  • Bacterial and Fungal infections
  • Scholarship of teaching and learning
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS
  1. Jasper A, Fourie W, Chetty S. The safety of cabotegravir in pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Infect Dis. 2025 Nov 12;25(1):1550. doi: 10.1186/s12879-025-11817-2. PMID: 41225339; PMCID: PMC12613714.
  2. Sefah IA, Chetty S, Yamoah P, Bangalee V (2025)  The impact of antimicrobial stewardship interventions on surgical antibiotic prophylaxis guidelines compliance in a teaching hospital in Ghana. PLoS One 20(8): e0329541. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0329541
  3. Jowhara Cassim, Sabiha Y Essack, Sarentha Chetty, An audit of antibiotic prescriptions: an antimicrobial stewardship pre-implementation study at a tertiary care public hospital, JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance, Volume 7, Issue 1, February 2025, dlae219, https://doi.org/10.1093/jacamr/dlae219
  4. Sefah, I.A., Chetty, S., Yamoah, P. et al. The impact of antimicrobial stewardship interventions on appropriate use of surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review. Syst Rev 13, 306 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-024-02731-w
  5. Makhabane, T., Gabriels, G., & Chetty, S. (2024). Prevalence and treatment-related outcome of hospitalised type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with comorbidities at an academic hospital in Johannesburg. Journal of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes of South Africa, 29(3), 94–99. https://doi.org/10.1080/16089677.2024.2421098
  6. Cassim J, Essack SY, Chetty S. Building an antimicrobial stewardship model for a public-sector hospital: a pre-implementation study. J Med Microbiol. 2024 Jul;73(7). https://doi.org/10.1099/jmm.0.001853 PMID: 39018101.
  7. Chetty S, Swe-Han KS, Mahabeer Y, Pillay A, Essack SY. Interprofessional education in antimicrobial stewardship, a collaborative effort. JAC Antimicrob Resist. 2024 Apr 1;6(2):dlae054. https://doi: 10.1093/jacamr/dlae054. PMID: 38562216; PMCID: PMC10984567.
  8. Sefah IA, Chetty S, Yamoah P, Godman B, Bangalee V. An Assessment of the Current Level of Implementation of the Core Elements of Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs in Public Hospitals in Ghana. Hosp Pharm. 2024 Jun;59(3):367-377. doi: 10.1177/00185787231224066. Epub 2024 Feb 15. PMID: 38764988; PMCID: PMC11097926.
  9. Sefah, I.A.; Chetty, S.; Yamoah, P.; Meyer, J.C.; Chigome, A.; Godman, B.; Bangalee, V. A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Survey of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices of Healthcare Professionals towards Antimicrobial Stewardship in Ghana: Findings and Implications. Antibiotics 2023, 12, 1497. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12101497 
  10. Jon-Benay Mitchell, Sarentha Chetty, Fatima Kathrada. Progestins in the symptomatic management of endometriosis: a meta‑analysis on their effectiveness and safety, Mitchell et al. BMC Women’s Health (2022) 22:526 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-022-02122-0 
  11. Chetty, S.; Reddy, M.;Ramsamy, Y.; Dlamini, V.C.;Reddy-Naidoo, R.; Essack, S.Y. Antimicrobial Stewardship in Public-Sector Hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Antibiotics 2022, 11, 881. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics11070881
  12. Chetty, S.; Armstrong, T.; Sharma Kharkwal, S.; Drewe,W.C.; De Matteis, C.I.; Evangelopoulos, D.; Bhakta, S.; Thomas, N.R. New InhA Inhibitors Based on Expanded Triclosan and Di-Triclosan Analogues to Develop a New Treatment for Tuberculosis. Pharmaceuticals 2021, 14, 361. https://doi.org/10.3390/ ph14040361
  13. Sarentha Chetty, Varsha Bangalee, COVID 19 – Keeping our environment clean. Why this should be the first law of health?, South African Family Practice, 2021, 63, 1:Part 3, a5297
  14. Sarentha Chetty, South Africa’s capacity to conduct antimicrobial stewardship, Southern African Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2021, Vol 36, No 1 | a297 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/sajid.v36i1.297
  15. Chetty, S., Bangalee, V. & Brysiewicz, P. Interprofessional collaborative learning in the workplace: a qualitative study at a non-governmental organisation in Durban, South Africa. BMC Med Educ 20, 346 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-020-02264-5
  16. Sarentha Chetty, Millidhashni Reddy, Yogandree Ramsamy, Anushka Naidoo, Sabiha Essack, Antimicrobial stewardship in South Africa: a scoping review of the published literature, JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance, Volume 1, Issue 3, December 2019, dlz060, https://doi.org/10.1093/jacamr/dlz060
  17. S Chetty, V Bangalee, F Oosthuizen, A new way of teaching an old subject: Pharmacy Law and Ethics,  Afr J Health Professions Educ 2018;10 (1)
  18. Chetty S, Ramesh M, Singh-Pillay A, Soliman ME. Recent advancements in the development of anti-tuberculosis drugs. Bioorg Med Chem Lett. 2017 Feb 1;27(3):370-386. doi: 10.1016/j.bmcl.2016.11.084. Epub 2016 Nov 29. PMID: 28017531.
  19. Chetty S, Bhakat S, Martin AJ, Soliman ME. Multi-drug resistance profile of PR20 HIV-1 protease is attributed to distorted conformational and drug binding landscape: molecular dynamics insights. J Biomol Struct Dyn. 2016;34(1):135-51. doi: 10.1080/07391102.2015.1018326. Epub 2015 Mar 27. PMID: 25671669.
  20. Chetty, S., Soliman, M.E.S. Possible allosteric binding site on Gyrase B, a key target for novel anti-TB drugs: homology modelling and binding site identification using molecular dynamics simulation and binding free energy calculations. Med Chem Res 24, 2055–2074 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00044-014-1279-3