Sheetal Silal

Sheetal Silal is an associate professor in the Department of Statistical Sciences at the University of Cape Town, South Africa and the Director the Modelling and Simulation Hub, Africa (MASHA). She is an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow in Tropical Disease Modelling at the Nuffield Department of Medicine at Oxford University.

She obtained her MSc in Operations Research and  PhD in Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases from UCT. She specialises in the development and application of mathematical models to malaria, COVID-19, pertussis, syphilis, and other infectious diseases in South Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and globally, with a focus on using epi-econ models to evaluate the potential impact of control programmes in reducing morbidity and mortality, and supporting policy development. 

Her approach to disease modelling is to develop epidemiological models that capture the characteristics of the health systems being studied, coupled with economic analysis to provide meaningful and acceptable modelling recommendations to decision-makers in government with particular attention paid to modelling health infrastructure, access to healthcare, and healthcare prioritisation. In this way, her research has helped inform and fund health policy in several low and middle-income countries.