Nuclear Medicine in South Africa: A Bright Future Ahead

SOUTH Africa is the second-largest supplier of nuclear medicine in the world according to Dr Kelvin Kemm.?Nuclear medicine imaging does not, like X-rays, reveal the structure of the body; rather, it shows the functioning of the body and allows the measurement of its biological and chemical processes.?The medicine is produced in the nuclear reactor at the Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa (Necsa), near Pretoria.?

Dr Kemm is a nuclear physicist and one of the most respected in the world. He shares some?fascinating?facts about nuclear medicine in South Africa that are almost hard to believe. Here are some examples:?

1. More than 20% of the nuclear medicine diagnostic procedures carried out around the world today employ radioisotopes produced by processing target materials irradiated with neutrons in Safari-1.

2. Every three minutes someone somewhere in the world is injected with nuclear medicine from South Africa, and every three hours someone’s life is saved.?

3.?Radioisotopes produced by NTP are exported to some 60 countries on five continents earning South Africa almost a billion rand in revenue.?

4. South Africa is producing?radioisotope, Lutetium-177 no carrier added (Lu-177 nca) for the effective treatment of neuroendocrine cancer and for which it has obtained a manufacturing licence from German group ITG.?

History

The history of nuclear medicine in South Africa is closely related to the?then South African apartheid government's decision?to produce a nuclear bomb. It seems civilian and military nuclear?work happened at the same time. Maybe as a cover for military nuclear activities. South Africa had enough nuclear material for half a dozen?nuclear bombs when the program was abandoned?in 1989. It was a secretive "Manhattan project" in Pretoria!?The history dates back to 1948 when first?radioisotopes were imported for medical purposes.1952, the then Pretoria General Hospital (later the HF Verwoerd Hospital and today the Steve Biko Academic Hospital) acquired a sodium iodide counter.?In 1964, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) acquired the country’s first rectilinear scanner. Then??In 1969, the then HF Verwoerd Hospital obtained the country’s first gamma camera.??The South African Society of Nuclear Medicine was established in 1974. In 1980, the discipline became, in this country, a subspeciality under radiology before becoming a full and separate specialty in 1987.?The CSIR began to produce radioisotopes at its low-energy cyclotron in Pretoria.?Then, in 1965, the Safari-1 research reactor was commissioned at Pelindaba, west of Pretoria.?

iThemba Laboratory for Accelerator Based Sciences, or iThemba LABS), near Somerset West, in the Western Cape, started producing radioisotopes with a cyclotron. It manufactures the radioisotopes Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), Iodine-131 (I-131), Iridium-192 (Ir-192) and Caesium-137 (Cs-137). Soon, it will start producing an additional radioisotope, Lutetium-177 no carrier added (Lu-177 nca) for the effective treatment of neuroendocrine cancer and for which it has obtained a manufacturing licence from German group ITG.?

The future

The South African government has recognized the potential of nuclear medicine and has committed to supporting its development. In 2022, the government announced a R1 billion investment in nuclear medicine, which will be used to establish new centers and upgrade existing facilities.

The private sector is also investing in nuclear medicine. In 2023, the Netcare Group opened a new nuclear medicine center in Johannesburg, which is one of the most advanced facilities in Africa.