National Institute for Communicable Diseases

Last updated

National Institute for Communicable Diseases
National Institute for Communicable Diseases logo.svg
Agency overview
Preceding agency
  • National Institute for Virology
Jurisdiction South Africa
Headquarters1 Modderfontein Road, Sandringham, Johannesburg
Parent department Department of Health
Parent agency National Health Laboratory Service
Website www.nicd.ac.za
Map
National Institute for Communicable Diseases

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) is the national public health institute of South Africa, [1] [2] providing reference to microbiology, virology, epidemiology, surveillance and public health research to support the government's response to communicable disease threats. [3] [4]

The NICD serves as a resource of knowledge and expertise of communicable diseases to the South African Government, Southern African Development Community countries and the African continent. The institution assists in the planning of policies and programmes to support and respond to communicable diseases. [5]

The main goal of the NICD is to be the national organ for South Africa for public health surveillance of communicable disease. [5]

Centres

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Global health</span> Health of populations in a global context

Global health is the health of the populations in the worldwide context; it has been defined as "the area of study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide". Problems that transcend national borders or have a global political and economic impact are often emphasized. Thus, global health is about worldwide health improvement, reduction of disparities, and protection against global threats that disregard national borders, including the most common causes of human death and years of life lost from a global perspective.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control</span> Agency of the European Union

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is an agency of the European Union (EU) whose mission is to strengthen Europe's defences against infectious diseases. It covers a wide spectrum of activities, such as: surveillance, epidemic intelligence, response, scientific advice, microbiology, preparedness, public health training, international relations, health communication, and the scientific journal Eurosurveillance. The centre was established in 2004 and is headquartered in Solna, Sweden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disease surveillance</span> Monitoring spread of disease to establish patterns of progression

Disease surveillance is an epidemiological practice by which the spread of disease is monitored in order to establish patterns of progression. The main role of disease surveillance is to predict, observe, and minimize the harm caused by outbreak, epidemic, and pandemic situations, as well as increase knowledge about which factors contribute to such circumstances. A key part of modern disease surveillance is the practice of disease case reporting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norwegian Institute of Public Health</span> Norwegian research institute

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) is a Norwegian government agency and research institute, and is Norway's national public health institute. It is subordinate to the Ministry of Health and Care Services. NIPH acts as a national competence institution in public health in a broad sense for governmental authorities, the health service, the judiciary, prosecuting authorities, politicians, the media and the general public, international organisations and foreign governments. The institute has around 1400 employees.

HIV/AIDS in China can be traced to an initial outbreak of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) first recognized in 1989 among injecting drug users along China's southern border. Figures from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization, and UNAIDS estimate that there were 1.25 million people living with HIV/AIDS in China at the end of 2018, with 135,000 new infections from 2017. The reported incidence of HIV/AIDS in China is relatively low, but the Chinese government anticipates that the number of individuals infected annually will continue to increase.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, formed in 1946, is the leading national public health institute of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Its main goal is to protect public health and safety through the control and prevention of disease, injury, and disability in the US and internationally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ministry of Health and Family Welfare</span> Cabinet ministry of Government of India

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, also known by its abbreviation MoHFW, is an Indian government ministry charged with health policy in India. It is also responsible for all government programs relating to family planning in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tuberculosis in China</span>

Tuberculosis is a serious public health problem in China. China has the world's third largest cases of tuberculosis, but progress in tuberculosis control was slow during the 1990s. Detection of tuberculosis had stagnated at around 30% of the estimated total of new cases, and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis was a major problem. These signs of inadequate tuberculosis control can be linked to a malfunctioning health system. The spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003, brought to light substantial weaknesses in the country's public health system. After the government realized the impact that the SARS outbreak had on the country, they increased leadership in their health department. After the SARS epidemic was brought under control, the government increased its commitment and leadership to tackle public health problems and, among other efforts, increased public health funding, revised laws that concerned the control of infectious diseases, implemented the world's largest internet-based disease reporting system to improve transparency, reach and speed, and started a program to rebuild local public health facilities and national infrastructure.

Health care services in Nepal are provided by both public and private sectors and are generally regarded as failing to meet international standards. Prevalence of disease is significantly higher in Nepal than in other South Asian countries, especially in rural areas. Moreover, the country's topographical and sociological diversity results in periodic epidemics of infectious diseases, epizootics and natural hazards such as floods, forest fires, landslides, and earthquakes. But, recent surge in Non communicable diseases has emerged as the main public health concern and this accounts for more than two-thirds of total mortality in country. A large section of the population, particularly those living in rural poverty, are at risk of infection and mortality by communicable diseases, malnutrition and other health-related events. Nevertheless, some improvements in health care can be witnessed; most notably, there has been significant improvement in the field of maternal health. These improvements include:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Centre for Disease Control</span> Indian medical health government agency

The National Centre for Disease Control is an institute under the Indian Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. It was established in July 1963 for research in epidemiology and control of communicable diseases and to reorganize the activities of the Malaria Institute of India. It has nine branches at Alwar, Bengaluru, Trivandrum, Calicut, Coonoor, Jagdalpur, Patna, Rajahmundry and Varanasi to advise the respective state governments on public health. The headquarters are in Sham Nath Marg, in New Delhi.

The United States Intelligence Community (IC) has a long history of producing assessments on infectious diseases. Most of these papers are distributed to government administrators and inform the choices of policymakers. Three of these assessments stand out as analytical products that have had important impact on the awareness, funding and treatment of infectious diseases around the world. The first paper is the National Intelligence Estimate on the Global Infectious Disease Threat, the second paper is the assessment on the Next Wave of HIV/AIDS, and the third paper was the assessment on SARS. This page summarizes the findings of these three papers and provides information about their impact.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Health Laboratory Service</span> South African national government agency

The National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) is a South African national government institution established in 2001. It was created by merging the South African Institute for Medical Research (SAIMR), the National Centre for Occupational Health and the National Institute for Virology. It also absorbed various provincial health department and university-run pathology laboratories.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is the national public health institute for Nigeria. It is a federal government agency under the Federal Ministry of Health (Nigeria), with its headquarters in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory.

Caroline Tiemessen is a virologist and researcher involved in HIV related research. She heads the Cell Biology Research Laboratory within the Centre for HIV and STIs at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases and is a research Professor in the School of Pathology at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS). Her research interests include the study of HIV vaccines and the search for an HIV cure in both children and adults. In 2018 she was part of the research team involved with the transplantation of a liver from an HIV-positive woman to her HIV-negative child.

The Health in Eswatini is poor and four years into the United Nations sustainable development goals, Eswatini seems unlikely to achieve goal on health. As a result of 63% poverty prevalence, 27% HIV prevalence, and poor health systems, maternal mortality rate is a high 389/100,000 live births, and under 5 mortality rate is 70.4/1000 live births resulting in a life expectancy that remains amongst the lowest in the world. Despite significant international aid, the government fails to adequately fund the health sector. Nurses are now and again engaged in demonstrations over poor working conditions, drug stock outs, all of which impairs quality health delivery. Despite tuberculosis and AIDS being major causes of death, diabetes and other non-communicable diseases are on the rise. Primary health care is relatively free in Eswatini save for its poor quality to meet the needs of the people. Road traffic accidents have increased over the years and they form a significant share of deaths in the country.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) is part of Ireland's Health Service Executive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency</span> South Korean government public health agency

Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, formerly Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is an organization under the South Korean Ministry of Welfare and Health that is responsible for the advancement of public health by managing prevention, survey, quarantine, trial, and research on infectious diseases, chronic and rare illnesses and injuries. It was founded in December 2003 and is located in Osong Health Technology Administration Complex in Cheongju. The organization is led by the vice-ministerial-level Commissioner of KDCA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chikwe Ihekweazu</span> Nigerian epidemiologist

Chikwe Ihekweazu is a Nigerian epidemiologist, public health physician and the World Health Organization’s Assistant Director-General for Health Emergency Intelligence and Surveillance Systems.

This article is about the timeline of events during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa which was part of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that was first recorded in South Africa on 1 March 2020. Since that date the pandemic has hit the country in four waves.

References

  1. "Health | South African Government". www.gov.za. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  2. "South Africa", Wikipedia, 20 February 2019, retrieved 25 February 2019
  3. Wan, Kang-Lin; Jiang, Yi; Liu, Zhi-Guang; Zhao, Xiu-Qin; Li, Ma-Chao; Liu, Hai-Can; Xiao, Tong-Yang; Huang, Ming-Xiang; Zhao, Li-Li (7 August 2019). "Prevalence, risk and genetic characteristics of drug-resistant tuberculosis in a tertiary care tuberculosis hospital in China". Infection and Drug Resistance. 12: 2457–2465. doi: 10.2147/IDR.S209971 . PMC   6689547 . PMID   31496759.
  4. "SA's private hospitals have been hit by a mysterious and deadly fungal infection that is spreading across the globe, and no one knows how to stop it". BusinessInsider. Retrieved 24 August 2019.
  5. 1 2 "About us | NICD". 5 July 2020. Archived from the original on 5 July 2020. Retrieved 5 July 2020.