News

 04 May 2011 A courier vehicle was hijacked on May 3 between Oliver Tambo International airport and premises of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in Sandringham, Johannesburg. The vehicle was recovered on Satyn Hout Road in Esther Park (next to the Greenstone Mall area), but unfortunately the package destined for the National Institute for […]

Following extended negotiations between the Western Cape Department of Health, University of Stellenbosch, National Health Laboratory Service and the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Germany, a new mobile diagnostic laboratory with bio safety level (BSL) 3 was unveiled in Mitchell’s Plain, Cape Town on 16 March 2011.   Premier Helen Zille, officially received the mobile

In South Africa the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993, requires the employer to bring about and maintain, as far as reasonably practicable, a work environment that is safe and without risk to the health of the workers. This means that the employer must ensure that the workplace is free of hazardous substances, such as

Nanosized particles (≤100nm in size) of gold are materials of great value with huge potential in biomedical, industrial and environmental applications. The biological applications include bio-labelling, drug/gene delivery, imaging, and sensing. For instance biological molecules can be adsorbed on the gold nanoparticle surfaces for release inside the cells. They are currently in use as sensitive

Professor Shabir Madhi has been appointed Executive Director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) as of 1 April 2011. Prof Madhi held the position of Professor of Vaccinology in the Wits Faculty of Health Sciences and is co-director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) – Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit. Professor Madhi also holds

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says over two-million people will contract a form of tuberculosis (TB) that is resistant to treatment with many drugs between 2011 and 2015. WHO's top TB official, Mario Raviglione, says hundreds-of-thousands of people around the world will die from multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) unless greater efforts are made to contain the

The Free State Health Department's campaign of sending officials into communities to find tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/Aids patients was working well, officials said yesterday. The pilot HCT (HIV counselling and testing) campaign could be the new "modus operandi of primary healthcare" in the Free State, head of the province's Health Department, Sipho Kabane, told reporters.

About 70% of tuberculosis (TB) patients in KwaZulu-Natal were HIV-positive, the provincial Health Department said on Tuesday. "TB is a problem in South Africa but it is worse in KZN, more especially in eThekwini Municipality," Health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo said, addressing reporters in Durban. He said SA would be a better country in terms of

Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) has now spread to most parts of KwaZulu-Natal after first being detected in the Tugela Ferry area. Bruce Margot, head of the provincial TB programme, said that the aim of the Health Department is to have 86 mobile teams operational in the province by June to treat drug-resistant TB patients in