The National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) is a dynamic organisation, creating news in the field of diagnostic pathology and research every day. The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), an institute of the NHLS, also alerts healthcare authorities and workers globally about infectious disease outbreaks requiring urgent and immediate attention.
Latest News
The Outbreak Response Unit of the NICD provides support to all provinces for outbreaks of epidemic infectious diseases.
For more information contact the unit on +27 (11) 386 0545.
Cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe
An outbreak of cholera has been confirmed in Harare, Zimbabwe. The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that as at 11 September 2018, almost 2 000 suspected cases including 24 deaths were reported. The outbreak is linked [...]
Klebsiella pneumoniae investigation underway
On 22 August 2018, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) received a report of Klebsiella pneumoniae infections in a hospital in Gauteng Province and was asked to investigate this by the Gauteng Provincial Department [...]
Second outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Democratic Republic of Congo
Following the announcement of the end of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on 24 July 2018 (see WHO press release: http://www.who.int/news-room/detail/24-07-2018-ebola-outbreak-in-drc-ends-who-calls-for-international-efforts-to-stop-other-deadly-outbreaks-in-the-country), the Health Ministry of the DRC [...]