Fighting an Invisible Enemy

The Story of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases

Barry Schoub

• Publisher: Wits University Press
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781776149001
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology & Healthcare Industry
• Index: Social Sciences

Fighting an Invisible Enemy narrates the founding in 2002 and growth of the internationally renowned centre of excellence for communicable diseases, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in South Africa. In a continent riven with a panoply of formidable contagious pathogens, the book describes how the nascent NICD travelled a rocky road to maturity. Starting humbly, as did many of its sister public health institutions around the world, the road was strewn with daunting obstacles of financial restrictions, bureaucratic straitjacketing, international isolation during the apartheid era and, in later years, the calumny of governmental AIDS denial. Following the triumph of the eradication of the once-dreaded smallpox, the NICD now plays a crucial role in the global effort to eradicate poliomyelitis. While the country has the misfortune of the largest HIV/AIDS pandemic in the world, the Institute's HIV research unit has become a world leader. More remote from public notice are the laboratories and support epidemiologists carry out for ongoing surveillance of communicable diseases and the alerts they provide for any signal of an impending outbreak or pandemic. The Institute's value to public health was clearly shown in the recent Covid-19 pandemic. The maxim that we are only safe when everyone everywhere is safe, underlines the importance of international partnerships and the key role the NICD plays, not only for the country but also for global health. This is a flagship organisation in public health in South Africa and this book paints a vivid portrait of its incredible accomplishments.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Acronyms and Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 The early seeds
• Chapter 2 The National Institute for Virology
• Chapter 3 Putting together the National Institute for Communicable Diseases
• Chapter 4 Surveillance of communicable diseases
• Chapter 5 The viral haemorrhagic fevers of Africa
• Chapter 6 Facing the HIV/AIDS pandemic
• Chapter 7 Vaccination and the eradication of disease
• Chapter 8 Epidemics, pandemics and new communicable diseases
• Epilogue
• Appendix 1
• Appendix 2
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Plates