South Africa News

Pretoria ‒ As the wider African region experiences an upsurge in mpox cases, South Africa’s multi-pronged efforts to bring the outbreak under control are bearing fruit. On 14 August 2024, World Health Organization (WHO) declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern and subsequently issued a set of temporary recommendations to scale up the emergency response.

The World Health Organization (WHO) country office in South Africa warmly welcomes the historic signing of the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill into law by His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa, marking a significant milestone in South Africa’s journey toward Universal Health Cover

Pretoria – One night in September 2023, 21-year-old university student Sinalo Tungwashe, who had been experiencing flu-like symptoms for some weeks, was roused from a fitful sleep by sharp chest pains. “I was struggling to breathe,” he recalls. “I knew that something was not normal. For a second, I thought I was about to die.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) Country Office in South Africa held a landmark series of training sessions aimed at bolstering the skills of its technical officers in policy advocacy and media engagement. These comprehensive training efforts were conducted from March 11th to 15th, 2024, at the Protea Hotel in Johannesburg, Balalaika Sandton, and were facilitated by PATH ,a globally recognized leader in health policy advocacy and Africa Minds a media consulting agency.

The Multi-Country Assignment Team (MCAT) - South Africa Hub, covering South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, and Botswana, held a significant retreat from March 6-8, 2024. This event, hosted in South Africa, aimed to strengthen the coordination and operational modalities of MCATs to deliver strategic high-level technical assistance to these countries.

Pretoria ‒ Tobacco consumption in Africa presents complex public health, economic and environmental challenges and requires a multisectoral approach to prevention and control. Professor Lekan Ayo-Yusuf of the Africa Centre for Tobacco Industry Monitoring and Policy Research (ATIM) at the University of Pretoria discusses tobacco control measures in Africa. 

South Africa is facing a significant health challenge as Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) are on the rise. In response, the National Department of Health (NDoH) launched a national campaign to raise awareness and promote prevention and control measures for NCDs. The first event was held in KwaZulu-Natal, focusing on one of the subdistrict of iLembe.

In a significant step towards combating the HIV epidemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) responded to a call to support the National Department of Health (NDoH) in South Africa, to embark on the path to elimination of triple elimination of HIV, syphilis and Hepatitis B.

On 16 January 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) in South Africa, was notified by the National Department of Health (NDoH) of two newly laboratory confirmed cases of cholera in the Limpopo Province. These were from Musina and Blouberg Sub-districts in Vhembe and Capricorn Districts respectively.

The National Department of Health (NDOH) , in collaboration with provincial health departments, the World Health Organization (WHO) in South Africa and partners such as John Hopkins  Program for International Education in Gynecology and Obstetrics (Jhpiego), the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), convened the National I