van der Merwe, Nerina C. http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8880-2099
Oosthuizen, Jaco
Theron, Magdalena
Chong, George
Foulkes, William D.
Funding for this research was provided by:
South African Medical Research Council (vd MerweNC2013)
Article History
Received: 6 February 2019
Accepted: 30 April 2020
First Online: 6 May 2020
Ethics approval and consent to participate
: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein (ETOVS 31/95, ETOVS 65/08, ECUFS 107/2014 and ECUFS 108/2014). Permission was also obtained from the National Health Laboratory Services for the use of the data. All patients received appropriate counselling and written informed consent was obtained prior inclusion. The research conformed to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki in 2013.
: Written consent was obtained from the participants for publication of the research findings.
: The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.