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Mvuyo Makhasi, National Institute for Communicable Diseases; Cheryl Cohen, National Institute for Communicable Diseases, and Sibongile Walaza, University of the Witwatersrand Respiratory diseases are highly infectious and cause a significant health burden. Disease surveillance is the bedrock of public health responses to outbreaks or epidemics caused by these diseases. Effective surveillance gives an indication of […]

After South African scientists sounded the alarm about the new omicron variant, countries around the world closed their borders. Kim Ludbrook/EPA Gemma Ware, The Conversation and Daniel Merino, The Conversation What is it like to discover a new coronavirus variant? In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we hear the inside story from one

What would happen if all the mosquitoes in the world disappeared?  Curious Kids is a series for children in which we ask experts to answer questions from kids. “Most people in the world absolutely hate mosquitoes. Personally, I don’t mind them – they don’t really bite me, so they do not bother me that much.

In South Africa, the burden of communicable diseases greatly threatens the health sector, as recently demonstrated by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic that placed tremendous pressure on healthcare workers and the sector alike. For this reason, non-pharmaceutical interventions have been, and continue to be our best defence against communicable diseases. Adopting certain behaviour, for instance, healthy hand