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Can year-round respiratory surveillance improve South Africa’s response to seasonal and emerging respiratory diseases? Respiratory pathogens remain a major public health concern, causing seasonal outbreaks and severe illness, particularly among young children, older adults, and people with underlying health conditions. Understanding when these pathogens circulate, who is most affected, and how they evolve is essential […]

Can laboratory-based surveillance help identify populations most at risk of invasive pneumococcal disease in South Africa? Invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD), caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, remains an important cause of illness and death in South Africa, particularly among young children, older adults, and immunocompromised individuals. Although the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) into the Expanded

What do the latest GERMS-SA surveillance findings reveal about disease trends in South Africa? Infectious diseases caused by bacterial, fungal, and parasitic pathogens remain a major public health concern. Surveillance systems that rely on laboratory-confirmed cases provide critical insights into disease burden and epidemiology, but can be affected by disruptions in diagnostic and reporting capacity.

How can One Health surveillance reveal hidden trends in human and animal cases? Rabies, endemic in South Africa, is a fatal viral infection affecting livestock, wildlife, domestic animals, and humans through direct zoonotic exposure. Although rabies has been reported in numerous mammalian species, most human infections are associated with contact with rabid domestic dogs. Traditional