In the 2024/2025 financial year, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) continued to fulfil its mandate by providing early detection, containment, and response to infectious disease threats across South Africa, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and the broader African region. Guided by its national and regional role, the Institute supported the National Department of Health (NDoH), the World Health Organization (WHO), Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), and other partners through expertise in communicable disease surveillance, outbreak response, specialised diagnostics, research, training, capacity building, and provincial epidemiology support.

Several public health events and disease outbreaks marked the year under review. The NICD provided critical epidemiological, communications, and technical support to the NDoH and provincial health departments for outbreak preparedness and response activities of national significance. The Institute played a central role in the containment and management of outbreaks, including cholera, measles, rubella, tanapox, chickenpox, mpox, various foodborne poisoning incidents, conjunctivitis, hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), and diphtheria.