DR.LESEGO BOGATSU - SENIOR AVIATION MANAGER AT THE SA CIVIL AVIATION AUTHORITY

DR.LESEGO BOGATSU - SENIOR AVIATION MANAGER AT THE SOUTH AFRICAN CIVIL AVIATION AUTHORITY ,CHAIR FOR THE COLLABORATIVE ARRANGEMENT FOR THE PREVENTION AND MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH EVENTS IN CIVIL AVIATION (CAPSCA).Bogatsu joined the CAA in 2004 after completing her Masters degree in Public Health and in search of a challenge.And a challenge is exactly what she got as her department is responsible for keeping passengers and aviation personnel safe from the spread of communicable diseases through air travel and drafting legislation that determines compliance standards.So what is aviation medicine?“It combines preventative, occupational, environmental, physiological and physical medicine with the psychology of men in flight,” Bogatsu explains.“We consider a pilot at high altitude, where the environment has more stressors than ground duty. When you go to altitude, there are certain atmospheric changes that take place, so when pressure goes down, it affects your oxygen and people can easily become hypoxic (a state or condition in which there is insufficient blood in the arteries), so pilots have to be extra fit.”