The activation brought together local road traffic services, community health workers, Wits Infectious Diseases and Oncology Research Institute, the Tembisa Hospital NHLS laboratory, and other partners, with support from the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa, the NICD, and the Ekurhuleni Health District. The Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute and Ekurhuleni Health District provided fully equipped mobile clinics, clinical materials, and staff. As hosts, the Tembisa Local Taxi Association provided essential on-site support, including sanitary facilities, security, and mobilisation of taxi operators.

The awareness drive, which was organised by NCR began with a community walk, where engagement and information were shared with community members. The awareness drive connected commuters, taxi drivers, and residents and shared information about cancer screening and referral support.

Public engagement continued throughout the day through health talks and one-on-one discussions covering cancer warning signs, the importance of early healthcare-seeking, and screening. About 100 people accessed one or more health-screening services, including blood pressure and blood glucose checks. Additional services included prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood draws, pap smears, HIV screening, and family-planning services.

The awareness drive led to further collaboration between cancer surveillance, research, healthcare, and community partners. The strength of these connections was evident when the team was invited to take part in another community walk in Tembisa in September, extending the engagement beyond the original activation.

By taking cancer information and screening services into a busy community setting, the activation made these resources more accessible to people where they live, work, and travel. It showed how bringing research, surveillance, healthcare services, and community partners together can turn cancer awareness into meaningful, practical engagement.

The majority (15) of these cases were reported in the Western Cape, City of Cape Town in particular, 3 in Gauteng and 1 in KwaZulu-Natal. Of concern is that 13 of the total cases were recorded between 13 August and 17 September, which suggests a rapid local transmission of this preventable viral infection. All cases/patients range in age from 23 to 50 years, with a median age of 36.5 years, and 18 of them are males with only 1 female.

One of the most recent cases involved an individual who travelled to Spain earlier this month and returned to South Africa on 14 September. This person underwent testing in Spain after being informed of his probable case status. South African health authorities are in are contact with the Spanish counterparts regarding laboratory test results of the individual to confirm his mpox status.

Mpox cases may present in any person who was in close contact with someone who tested positive for the virus in the last few days (up to 21 days) and will present by displaying similar symptoms.

The importance of continued surveillance, early detection, and public cooperation cannot be overemphasised in preventing further transmission. Mpox is a viral disease that can affect anyone regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status. Members of the public are reminded of mpox symptoms which include fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, fatigue and rash or skin lesions that may appear on the face, hands, feet, genitals or other body parts. Typically, the skin lesions start as flat red spots before progressing to bumps, followed by fluid-filled blisters, then pus filled bumps and eruptions into crusted scabs.

The symptoms usually appear within 6 to 13 days after exposure but can range from 5 to 21 days. Therefore, anyone experiencing these symptoms, particularly if they have had close contact with a confirmed case or a suspected case, should seek medical attention immediately and avoid close contact with others.

Mpox is transmitted mainly through close physical contact with an infected person, including skin-to-skin contact with the rash or lesions, and contact with contaminated materials such as bedding, clothing, or towels used by an infected person.

Mpox-positive persons can also transmit the virus through respiratory droplets during prolonged face-to-face contact, uncovered coughing or sneezing. Vigilance remains essential, particularly in households, healthcare settings and among close social networks. Hand hygiene through frequent washing or use of sanitisers is one of the effective methods to prevent the spread of the virus.

The government, through the support of the World Health Organization, has secured limited doses of mpox vaccines (MVA-BN) and treatment (Tecovirimat) as part of its outbreak response strategy to disrupt local transmission. The health authorities will decide where and how to use these does to contain outbreaks. Vaccination should be accompanied by continued adherence to preventive measures.

Individuals and communities are urged to support those diagnosed with mpox and those suspected of being infected with the virus, because stigma and discrimination have the potential to undermine an outbreak response by deterring people from seeking medical care.

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Published on Monday, 14 September 2026 in Nature Microbiology, the researchers also found that older adults and young children are more vulnerable during periods of high air pollution, and that improving air quality could lower disease risk. They also suggest that understanding what type of bacterial strains are circulating and how environmental factors shape infection rates could inform future public health policies, protect those most at risk, and prepare hospitals for outbreaks.

S. pneumoniae is found in the respiratory microbiome, the collection of microbes that live in the human nose and throat, in almost 20 per cent of adults globally1. While many adults and children carry the bacteria without any symptoms, when S. pneumoniae gets into the lower respiratory tract or bloodstream, it can lead to invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD).

IPD includes bacterial sepsis, pneumonia and meningitis. It is a major cause of disease and death globally and often peaks during colder months. In South Africa, there were over 1800 reported cases of IPD in 20223, and in England, the UK Health Security Agency reports that there are more than 5,000 cases per year, particularly impacting children under the age of five, people over 65 years old, and those with underlying conditions. There are currently over 100 different serotypes, which are specific subtypes of S. pneumoniae.

While it is known that different subtypes of S. pneumoniae can lead to varying infection rates in different populations, important gaps remain in our collective understanding of how things such as humidity, temperature, and air pollution impact the timing of disease, and how risks vary by individual age and bacterial subtype.

The study examined around 59,000 cases of IPD across 19 years from South Africa’s national GERMS-SA surveillance programme.  In South Africa, between 40-60 per cent of children carry S. pneumoniae.

The researchers found that different subtypes of S. pneumoniae responded differently to higher air pollution exposure, noting three subtypes (14, 19A, and 8) were linked to the greatest risk of IPD following exposure.

Professor Anne von Gottberg, co-senior author at the NICD, said: “Invasive pneumococcal diseases are a significant public health issue in South Africa and globally. This research adds to the ongoing evidence that air quality greatly impacts our health and shows that it has different effects depending on the strain of bacteria that is found in an area. We need to focus on monitoring and improving air quality in areas with high disease risk to prevent or reduce some of these infections.”

Professor Rachel Lowe, co-senior author at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and the Catalan Institution for Research & Advanced Studies, said: “Climate change and rapid urbanisation are fundamentally altering the environmental conditions that influence risk of infectious disease. By linking long-term climate and air quality monitoring with health outcomes, this work highlights how shifting environmental patterns can amplify public health risks. Protecting communities most at risk will require cross-sector collaboration and adaptive health strategies that can keep pace with a changing environment.”

Dr Sophie Belman, first author previously at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and Barcelona Supercomputing Center, currently at Yale School of Public Health, said: “While we found that temperature and air pollution generally increase the risk of invasive pneumococcal diseases, such as bacterial meningitis, our research also suggests that it is the bacterial subtypes a person is carrying that modulate infection rates. The strain of bacteria impacts the timing of disease and who might be more at risk depending on their respiratory microbiome, meaning that the risk is not the same in every situation or for every person. By extending our findings to other parts of the globe, we will better understand who has the highest health risk from environmental exposures, and what factors need to be addressed in different regions, such as improving air quality in cities.”

For enquiries and interview requests, please send a request to: Media@nicd.ac.za.

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As part of these celebrations, the NCR will host a 40th Anniversary Symposium and Gala, which will reflect on four decades of cancer surveillance, highlight the importance of cancer data and surveillance, and look towards the future of cancer prevention and control in South Africa. Cancer remains an important public health challenge, and reliable data is essential to understanding who is affected, which cancers are most common, where the burden is greatest, and how cancer trends change over time.

For 40 years, the NCR has contributed to this evidence base through tracking cancer incidence across South Africa; collecting, analysing and reporting cancer statistics to strengthen understanding of the country’s cancer burden; supporting the Department of Health and other stakeholders in cancer prevention, control and care initiatives; and informing cancer policy and guidelines in South Africa.

The symposium will provide media an opportunity to hear from cancer surveillance experts, gain insight into four decades of cancer data and its impact on public health, and explore the future of cancer surveillance in South Africa.

Members of the media are invited to attend and cover this significant milestone in South Africa’s public health history.

Event details:

• Date: Thursday, 10 September 2026
• Time: 09:00–15:00
• Arrival time: 08:30
• Venue: 1 Modderfontein Road, Sandringham. National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), PRF Auditorium.

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South African stakeholders have once again come together through the National Rabies Advisory Group, joining forces in the fight against rabies. We aim to create awareness around rabies and the animal and public health impact this deadly disease has, using multiple platforms. Be on the lookout for the national social media campaign in September 2026.

Rabies remains one of the world’s deadliest yet most preventable diseases. This year’s World Rabies Day theme, ‘Stronger Together’, reminds us that eliminating rabies requires partnership at every level. Communities, pet owners, veterinary and para-veterinary professionals, healthcare workers, government departments, policymakers and partner organisations each have a critical role in rabies elimination.

Rabies prevention depends on coordinated human, animal and environmental health systems working together in support of each other.

Core rabies messages

Rabies is nearly always fatal once symptoms appear, but it is preventable through vaccination and prompt post-exposure treatment.

• Although Rabies is 99.9% fatal once a person or animal shows clinical signs, it is also 100% preventable through vaccination of our pets and timely and correct treatment of exposed humans.
• Rabies is a deadly disease with no cure once symptoms appear. It can be transmitted to people by an infected animal’s bite, scratch, or lick. If a person is bitten, scratched, or licked by an animal suspected to have rabies (an animal showing odd behaviour or neurological symptoms), the person needs to wash the wound thoroughly with soap and running water for at least 10 minutes and seek medical attention immediately. Post-exposure prophylaxis treatment will involve a series of rabies vaccinations and rabies immunoglobulin being injected into the wound (if the skin has been broken).
• If your dogs and cats are vaccinated annually against rabies, they form a protective barrier for your family and protect you. The same is true if everyone in your community ensures that their dogs and cats are vaccinated annually.
• Rabies vaccines that are registered for use in South Africa are safe to use in your dogs and cats and should be administered through a registered veterinary professional.
• Legally, every pet owner must have their dogs and cats vaccinated to protect both humans and animals against rabies. The first rabies vaccine is given at 12 weeks (three months) of age, followed by a booster vaccination one month later. A booster can be given up to 12 months later, but one month later is the recommended option. Thereafter, a booster is legally required every three years. In high-risk areas, annual vaccination is strongly advised!
• Remember that any mammal can become infected with rabies – this includes pets, wildlife, livestock, and humans. Typical wildlife species that can host rabies include jackals, foxes, mongooses, aardwolf and cape fur seals, amongst others.
• Dogs and cats are often moved between provinces by travellers, workers, or holiday-goers, which can easily cause the spread of rabies to any area if these animals are not vaccinated against rabies and are incubating the disease.

Enquire with your local state or private veterinarian, animal health technician or welfare organisation. State veterinary office contact details are available at: https://www.nda.gov.za/index.php/component/content/article/451-provincial-veterinary-services-contacts

A list of all registered veterinary facilities is available at: https://savc.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/FacilityRegisterPublish_July-2026.pdf

Vaccinate your dogs and cats, support campaigns, share accurate information, educate others and strengthen community protection. For more information about rabies, visit here.

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Rotavirus is a common childhood diarrhoeal infection that has a seasonal pattern, peaking during the cooler, drier months of the year. Most children have at least one infection by two years of age.  The virus is transmitted via the faecal-oral route. “Clinical symptoms include the sudden onset of vomiting followed by non-bloody watery diarrhoea, which may result in severe life-threatening dehydration. Fever may occur in approximately 30-50% of patients. Associated symptoms include loss of appetite (anorexia), lethargy, and mild abdominal discomfort,” said Prof. Nicola Page, head of the Centre for Enteric Diseases at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

Since the rotavirus vaccine was introduced into the expanded programme of immunisation in August 2009, the annual rotavirus season in South Africa typically occurs from July to August and may extend into September.

Diarrhoeal syndromic surveillance is conducted at five sites as part of the GERMS-SA platform (Pelonomi Hospital, Free State; Klerksdorp/Tshepong hospitals, North West; Red Cross Children’s Hospital, Western Cape; Kabokweni Clinic, Mpumalanga and Kalafong Hospital, Gauteng). The surveillance targets all patients presenting for the treatment of diarrhoea at participating sites.

“Parents should also watch for signs of early to moderate dehydration, including no tears, dry mouth, sunken soft spot or eyes, fewer wet nappies (no wet nappy for previous 6-8 hours), and behaviour changes like unusual fussiness, listlessness and lethargy or refusal to eat or drink. In these children, parents could increase fluid intake or, if concerned, proceed to the nearest clinic or health facility,” warned Prof. Page.

Children with severe dehydration may become excessively sleepy or limp, produce dark urine, have cold or discoloured skin, exhibit fast breathing or heartbeat and their skin will form a tent when pinched and be slow to return to normal. Severe dehydration is a medical emergency, and these children should be taken to the nearest medical facility or clinic immediately, administering oral rehydration solution on the way, if possible. Prompt recognition of dehydration and rapid treatment will prevent prolonged hospitalisation, complications and even death.

For more information about rotavirus, visit the NICD website here.

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The workshop, which brings together around 25 scientists, industry developers, regulators, and international partners, builds on progress that South Africa has made in developing the sterile insect technique (SIT), in which male mosquitoes are reared in the laboratory, sterilised and released by the thousands to mate with wild females, whose eggs then will never hatch. Since the first sterile male releases in Jozini, KwaZulu-Natal, in 2021, the South African SIT programme has advanced the technology. The lessons learned along the way, from mass-rearing to long-distance transportation to community engagement, are proving to be the foundation for adaptation to other new innovative tools such as gene drive technology.

The gene drive technology – in contrast to SIT, which makes male mosquitoes unable to father offspring – provides a genetic change a head start: instead of being inherited by only half of a mosquito’s offspring as normal genes are, a gene drive is passed on to nearly all of them. Released in small numbers, it can spread through a wild population over generations, offering a self-sustaining tool that needs far fewer repeat releases than SIT. “The two technologies share the same starting point,” explains Dr Givemore Munhenga, Principal Medical Scientist in the Vector Control Reference Laboratory at NICD’s Centre for Emerging Zoonotic and Parasitic Diseases. “Before any genetically modified mosquito can help fight malaria, someone still has to rear it by the hundreds of thousands, package it safely, transport it, and release it in the field. That is exactly where our SIT experience becomes so valuable.”

The workshop, jointly convened with the USA Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) and supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, focuses on three practical questions: What are the biggest technical challenges in mass-rearing, handling, transporting and releasing genetically modified mosquitoes? Which of these steps can realistically be automated? And should production happen locally, country by country, or regionally, with mosquitoes shipped across borders to where they are needed? Delegates included gene drive researchers, companies developing mosquito-rearing automation, and oversight bodies such as the International Atomic Energy Agency and New Partnership for Africa’s Development. “Gene drives have shown enormous promise in caged trials, but very few groups have grappled with what it actually takes to move from the laboratory to the field,” emphasised Dr Munhenga. “That is our expertise. This workshop lets us share it, learn from others working on the same problem, and make sure that when these tools are ready, Africa is ready to deploy them.”

By the end of the week, the workshop aims to produce an understanding of technical needs and knowledge gaps, new collaborations between NICD and gene drive developers and implementers, and a refined roadmap for the Institute’s own upscaling of the SIT project, another step towards putting a self-sustaining tool in the hands of malaria control programmes in South Africa and across the continent.

The workshop launches alongside a new three-year NICD project to upscale the deployment of genetic control approaches against Anopheles, South Africa’s primary malaria-carrying mosquito. The project will refine mass-rearing and sexing automation, test long-distance chilled transport, trial both ground and drone-based releases, and strengthen the regulatory pathways needed before any gene-drive mosquito can be released in the field.

Recent social media posts claiming that the NICD has confirmed a Typhoid fever outbreak in Tshwane are misleading. Please refer to https://www.nicd.ac.za/typhoid-fever-updates/ for an accurate report of the number of cases identified within the country.

We urge the public to verify health information before sharing it and to rely on the NICD website and official social media platforms for accurate, up-to-date public health information.

TAP-WES is a regional initiative that positions the NICD as a technical and training hub for wastewater and environmental surveillance in Africa. The programme supports countries to design, implement, and scale sustainable WES systems by providing technical assistance, training, mentoring, and opportunities for peer learning. It adopts a pathogen-agnostic approach while supporting surveillance of priority pathogens identified by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The programme also shares South Africa’s experience in integrating wastewater surveillance into routine public health surveillance. Through this work, the NICD supports countries in developing policies, designing surveillance systems, strengthening laboratory capacity, improving data analysis, and integrating wastewater surveillance with clinical surveillance and pandemic preparedness.

The two-week training combines classroom learning with practical, hands-on experience. During the first week, participants undertook a field sampling exercise and received laboratory training in sample concentration, nucleic acid extraction, and pathogen detection using both digital and real-time PCR platforms. The second week focuses on data management, epidemiological analysis, reporting, and introductory bioinformatics, with specialised bioinformatics sessions delivered in collaboration with the Scripps Research Institute in the United States.

By building technical expertise and fostering collaboration between African public health institutions, TAP-WES aims to strengthen regional capacity to detect and respond to infectious disease threats through wastewater surveillance. The programme contributes to a more coordinated and resilient public health surveillance network across the continent.

The TAP-WES programme is funded by the Gates Foundation and is implemented in partnership with WHO-AFRO, with technical collaboration from the Scripps Research Institute.

Influenza A(H1N1) pdm09 is now recognised globally as one of the regular seasonal influenza strains that circulate each year and management is the same as for other seasonal influenza strains. For healthy individuals, the illness is mild to moderate and can be safely managed at home with rest, fluids, and over-the-counter medication.

Common symptoms of influenza may include fever, cough, sore throat, headache, muscle and body aches, fatigue and runny or blocked nose. Many people recover fully within a few days to a week without requiring hospitalisation or antiviral treatment. However, certain groups are at higher risk of severe illness or complications. These include pregnant women, older persons, young children, and individuals with underlying medical conditions such as HIV, TB, diabetes, heart disease, asthma, or chronic lung disease.

People in these high-risk groups are encouraged to seek medical attention early if they develop flu symptoms, particularly if they experience difficulty breathing, chest pain, dehydration, persistent fever, or worsening illness.

The NICD continues to strongly recommend annual influenza vaccination as the most effective way to reduce the risk of severe disease and hospitalisation. Vaccination is especially important for vulnerable groups and healthcare workers.

The public can also help reduce the spread of influenza by practising simple everyday prevention measures such as:

• Wash hands regularly with soap and water
• Cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue or bent elbow
• Stay home when sick to avoid infecting others
• Avoid close contact with people who are unwell
• Ensure indoor spaces are well ventilated where possible

The Department and the NICD will continue to monitor influenza trends through national surveillance systems.

Weekly updates on influenza and other circulating respiratory viruses such as RSV, COVID-19, and pertussis are available from the NICD. Click here to visit the page.

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