​​Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

​Staff 


 

Prof Sharon Kling​

Sharon Kling is the Clinical Unit Head for General Paediatrics, head of the Paediatric Allergy Clinic and an associate professor in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS), Stellenbosch University and Tygerberg Children's Hospital. 

Her under- and postgraduate training was at the University of Cape Town. She qualified as a paediatrician in 1988 and then furthered her training in allergology at Red Cross Children's Hospital. She was appointed as a consultant in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Tygerberg Hospital (TBH) in 1991 and was instrumental in setting up the Tracheostomy Home Programme. She was appointed as the Clinical Unit Head of General Paediatrics in 2013, and is a registered paediatric allergologist. The paediatric allergy service at TBH offers a full specialist  range of investigations and management of allergic disease in children. 

She obtained an MPhil in Applied Ethics at Stellenbosch University in 2008, and is currently enrolled for a Ph.D. in Applied Ethics. She is a member of the Clinical Ethics Committee at TBH and is vice chair of the Undergraduate Research Ethics Committee, FMHS. She is the Immediate Past President of the College of Paediatricians of SA and a member of the Executive Committee of the Allergy Society of South Africa (ALLSA). 

Her main clinical interests are paediatric asthma, allergy and clinical ethics. Her research interests are clinical ethics consultation, clinical ethics committees and paediatric ethics.

 

Selected publications

  1. Kling S, Donninger H, Williams Z, Vermeulen J, Weinberg E, Latiff K, Ghildyal R, Bardin P. Persistence of rhinovirus RNA after asthma exacerbation in children. Clin Exp Allergy 2005; 35(5); 672-678.
  2. Goussard P, Kling S, Gie RP, Nel ED, Heyns L, Rossouw GJ, Janson JT. CMV pneumonia in HIV-infected ventilated infants. Ped Pulmonol 2010 Jul;45(7):650-5; DOI 10.1002/ppul.21228.
  3. Vanker A, Kling S, Booysen JR, et al. Tracheostomy home care: in a resource-limited setting. Arch Dis Child 2012 Feb;97(2):121-3. Epub 2010 Sep 23. doi:10.1136/adc.2010.187153.
  4. Papadopoulos NG, Arakawa H, Carlsen KH, Custovic A, Gern J, Lemanske R, Le Souef P, Mäkelä M, Roberts G, Wong G, Zar H, Akdis CA, Bacharier LB, Baraldi E, van Bever HP, de Blic J, Boner A, Burks W, Casale TB, Castro-Rodriguez JA, Chen YZ, El-Gamal YM, Everard ML, Frischer T, Geller M, Gereda J, Goh DY, Guilbert TW, Hedlin G, Heymann PW, Hong SJ, Hossny EM, Huang JL, Jackson DJ, de Jongste JC, Kalayci O, Aït-Khaled N, Kling S, Kuna P, Lau S, Ledford DK, Lee SI, Liu AH, Lockey RF, Lødrup-Carlsen K, Lötvall J, Morikawa A, Nieto A, Paramesh H, Pawankar R, Pohunek P, Pongracic J, Price D, Robertson C, Rosario N, Rossenwasser LJ, Sly PD, Stein R, Stick S, Szefler S, Taussig LM, Valovirta E, Vichyanond P, Wallace D, Weinberg E, Wennergren G, Wildhaber J, Zeiger RS. International consensus on (ICON) pediatric asthma. Allergy. 2012 Aug;67(8):976-97. doi: 10.1111/j.1398-9995.2012.02865.x. Epub 2012 Jun 15.
  5. Yamashiro Y, Martin J, Gazarian M, Kling S, Nakamura H, Matsui A, Cucchiara S, Aloi M, Wynn EL, Mulberg AE. Drug Development - The Use of Unlicensed/Off Label Meds in Pediatrics. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2012 Sep 13. [Epub ahead of print].
  6. Kling S, Zar HJ, Levin ME, Green RJ, Jeena PM, Risenga SM, Thula SA, Goussard P, Gie RP, for the South African Childhood Asthma Working Group (SACAWG). Guidelines for the management of acute asthma in children 2013 update. SAMJ South African Medical Journal 2013; 103(3): 200-207.
  7. Morrow BM, Argent AC, Kling S. Informed consent in paediatric critical care research – a South African perspective. BMC Medical Ethics 2015; DOI 10.1186/s12910-015-0052-6.
  8. Moodley K, Kling S. Dual loyalties, human rights violations, and physician complicity in Apartheid South Africa. American Medical Association Journal of Ethics 2015;17(10):966-972.
  9. Ganya W, Kling S, Moodley K. Autonomy of the child in the South African context: is a 12 year old of sufficient maturity to consent to medical treatment? BMC Med Ethics. 2016 Nov 2;17(1):66.
  10. Levin M, Goga A, Doherty T, Coovadia H, Sanders D, Green RJ, Kling S. Allergy and infant feeding guidelines in the context of resource-constrained settings. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2017 Feb;139(2):455-458. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2016.09.039. Epub 2016 Nov 14.
  11. Schultheiß M, Kling S, Lenker U, Von Bibra M, Rosenkranz B, Klinker H. Lopinavir serum concentrations of critically ill infants: a pharmacokinetic investigation in South Africa. Med Microbiol Immunol 2018 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00430-018-0550-5
  12. Masekela R, Jeevanathrum A, Kling S, et al. Asthma treatment in children: a pragmatic approach. S Afr Med J 2018;108(8):19-25.