The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) says in the editorial of its latest monthly newsletter: “This month, parts of Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi have been devastated by the Cyclone Idai. Large-scale relief operations are underway by a number of humanitarian aid organisations and the South African government. Surveillance mechanisms are being set up to facilitate early detection of communicable disease. At the time of compilation, no reports of communicable disease associated with cyclone-affected areas are available to the NICD.
“South Africa continues to experience increased case-loads of a number of communicable diseases reported in this edition. Human rabies cases continue to be reported, with a third laboratory-confirmed case diagnosed in the Eastern Cape Province this month.
“Three additional pertussis cases have brought the total of laboratory-confirmed cases in Nelson Mandela Metropolitan to 119 since November 2019.
“An increased case-load of enteroviral meningitis cases has been observed in Garden District in the Western Cape Province and Sara Baartman District in the Eastern Cape Province. This increased case load was initially identified in Khayelitsha in the Western Cape Province and reported in the December 2018 Communique. Clinicians are requested to be aware and to submit specimens to NHLS Tygerberg (see NICD website, www.nicd.ac.za).
“We report on the third case of imported trypanosomiasis in the last four months, and on an outbreak of suspected scarlet fever in the Waterberg district of Limpopo Province.
“In this edition we provide an update on the South African malaria season, the ongoing Ebola virus disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the northern hemisphere influenza season.”
[link url="http://www.nicd.ac.za/publications/internal-publications/"]NICD newsletter[/link]