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.
Health Minister declares the end of Listeriosis outbreak
On 5 December 2017 we announced that South Africa was hit by the outbreak of listeriosis. A joint Public health emergency Co-ordinating committee was established including NDoH, DAFF, DTi, NCC, NRCS, DEA, SALGA and DMs [...]
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 announced [...]
Increase in Pertussis cases in South Africa
An increase in pertussis cases has been reported among children aged <5 years of age from the sentinel sites (Western Cape, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North West and KwaZulu-Natal) which form part of a pneumonia surveillance programme, [...]