Dr. Nthabi Moletsane

Dr. Nthabi Moletsane is a general practitioner at Queen Mamohato Memorial Hospital in Maseru — Lesotho's national referral hospital and the country's main healthcare institution. With 10 years of clinical experience, she provides primary and general medical care in a country with one of the world's highest burdens of tuberculosis and HIV.

Lesotho is a small landlocked kingdom entirely surrounded by South Africa, with a population of approximately 2.1 million. It has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world (approximately 23% of adults) and one of the highest TB incidence rates globally — a burden directly linked to the HIV epidemic, since HIV dramatically increases vulnerability to TB. In this context, respiratory medicine and HIV/TB care are the most critical aspects of Lesotho's general medical practice.

Dr. Moletsane has developed deep expertise in the practical management of HIV/TB co-infection within a resource-limited primary care setting, including antiretroviral therapy initiation and monitoring, TB treatment protocols, and the complex drug interactions and immune reconstitution challenges that arise when treating HIV-positive TB patients.

She consults in Sesotho and English, the two official languages of Lesotho.

Dr. Moletsane completed her MB ChB at the University of Health Sciences (UHS) in Maseru — Lesotho's medical school, established to train the country's healthcare professionals. She completed her general practice training at Queen Mamohato Memorial Hospital, gaining extensive experience in HIV/AIDS care, tuberculosis management, maternal health, and emergency medicine in a high-volume, resource-constrained setting. She has participated in WHO Stop TB programme training, MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières) TB training programmes, and PEPFAR-funded HIV care training in Lesotho.

Dr. Moletsane's clinical practice is heavily focused on the management of Lesotho's dominant disease burdens. For tuberculosis, she diagnoses TB using sputum smear microscopy, GeneXpert MTB/RIF molecular testing, and chest X-ray, and initiates and monitors standard first-line TB treatment (DOTS) and MDR-TB referral pathways.

For HIV/AIDS, she provides voluntary testing and counselling, CD4 count and viral load interpretation, and initiates ART according to national guidelines. For HIV-TB co-infection — Lesotho's most critical clinical challenge — she manages the timing of ART initiation relative to TB treatment and monitors for immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS) and drug toxicity.

For respiratory conditions, she manages asthma, COPD, pneumonia, and pleural disease. She performs spirometry interpretation for obstructive airway assessment and manages oxygen therapy for severe respiratory illness.

Lesotho is a small landlocked country entirely surrounded by South Africa, and its healthcare system operates in close complementarity with South African medical facilities. Queen Mamohato Memorial Hospital is Lesotho's national referral hospital and accepts patients from across the country.

International patients in Lesotho — including diaspora Basotho returning from South Africa or overseas, NGO and development workers based in Maseru, and patients from neighboring South African provinces requiring care in Maseru — can access medical consultations at the hospital's outpatient department. Dr. Moletsane consults in Sesotho and English. Complex cases requiring subspecialist intervention or advanced diagnostics are referred to hospitals in Bloemfontein or Johannesburg, South Africa.

Dr. Moletsane has been formally recognised by the Lesotho Medical Association for her sustained contributions to primary healthcare delivery and clinical quality at Queen Mamohato Memorial Hospital over her 10-year career. She received a Médecins Sans Frontières training commendation for her participation in MSF's HIV clinical management capacity-building program in Maseru.

She has contributed to PEPFAR-funded HIV care programs in Lesotho, receiving acknowledgment from the implementing organization for her clinical contributions to antiretroviral therapy monitoring and patient retention outcomes. She has participated in national tuberculosis and HIV co-infection management program implementation and contributed to Lesotho Ministry of Health clinical audit activities. She is an active member of the Lesotho Medical Association.