Arifa Parker is a physician and infectious diseases specialist and is the head of the Unit for Infection Prevention and Control (UIPC) at Tygerberg Hospital/Stellenbosch University. She received a Discovery Foundation sub-specialist award in 2013. She completed her PhD in 2023, and her research interests include IPC, AMS, outbreak response & interplay between infectious disease and non-communicable diseases. She is the current president of the Infectious Diseases Society of Southern Africa, a 2023 Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) International Ambassador and is an Infection Control Africa Network (ICAN) board member. Her interests are infection prevention, antimicrobial stewardship, and the relationships between infections and non-communicable diseases.