National Institute for Communicable Diseases
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) came into being in January 2002 following on the restructuring of the public sector medical laboratory services of South Africa and the creation of the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) from the previous South African Institute for Medical Research (SAIMR) together with various governmental and provincial laboratories.
The NICD is a resource of knowledge and expertise in regionally relevant communicable diseases to the South African Government, to SADC countries and the African continent, in order to assist in the planning of policies and programmes and to support appropriate responses to communicable disease problems and issues.
The NICD has been established to function as a public health oriented, laboratory-based, national facility distinct from and independent of the existing microbiology/virology laboratories attached to academic centres throughout South Africa. The direction which the NICD will take is that of a public health oriented, rather than a patient-oriented clinical diagnostic entity as reflected in the service commitments, research directions and teaching carried out by the Institute.
This work supported by the NIH/Fogarty International Center under grant D43 TW00699