Institutions
National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD)
The NICD is committed to building research capacity among South African investigators from traditionally disadvantaged populations and in other African countries. When not completing training programs abroad, accepted SAPPHGenE trainees will be mentored and gain research experience here.
All relevant Centers are situated in the main NICD campus in Johannesburg, South Africa. The diverse expertise that NICD encompasses situates it well to implement multidisciplinary research work that requires epidemiological and varied diagnostic and bioinformatics capabilities. You can visit their homepage here: https://www.nicd.ac.za/
The NICD is affiliated to the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of the Witwatersrand, which has FWA IRB number 00001223 whose mandate it is “to approve and provide the necessary ongoing review of all Clinical Research conducted under its responsibility.”
Two NICD labs are specifically affiliated with SAPPHGenE:
CRDM
Centre for Respiratory Diseases and Meningitis
The Centre for Respiratory Diseases and Meningitis (CRDM) is a resource of surveillance, diagnostics, expertise and research in the field of communicable respiratory diseases and meningitis for South Africa and the African continent. The Centre generates data and provides expertise related to respiratory diseases and meningitis of public health importance to the South African National Department of Health, health care providers, and regional and international collaborators, in order to assist with the planning of public health policies and programs and response to respiratory disease and meningitis outbreaks.
The CRDM is also a source of capacity building and formal training within South Africa and the African region. It contains both a bacteriology and virology laboratory.
The bacteriology lab conducts national laboratory-based surveillance for invasive disease due to Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae and Neisseria meningitidis. It also performs national and regional reference laboratory functions for the diagnosis of meningitis and pneumonia caused by the above bacterial pathogens.
The virology lab has been a recognized World Health Organization (WHO) National Influenza Centre since the late 1980’s. It operates a BSL2 facility consisting of a RNA extraction, virus isolation and molecular laboratory with separate pre- and post-PCR settings, as well as a BSL3 laboratory which has recently been commissioned. The lab also routinely performs PCR detection of 9 viral pathogens including influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, human metapneumovirus, enterovirus, rhinovirus, adenovirus and parainfluenza virus types 1-3.
The objectives of the CRDM are to:
- To conduct surveillance for respiratory diseases and meningitis within South Africa in order to provide data on the burden, severity and seasonality
- To characterise (phenotypically and genotypically) pathogens contributing to respiratory diseases and meningitis in order to understand strain relatedness (molecular epidemiology) and guide vaccine development treatment and prevention policy
- To monitor trends in antiviral and antibacterial drug resistance in respiratory and meningeal pathogens in order to inform empiric treatment guidelines
- To monitor the impact and effectiveness of interventions to reduce respiratory diseases and meningitis
- To provide reference laboratory functions for specialised organism characterisation and identification related to respiratory communicable diseases and pathogens causing meningitis nationally and regionally
- To identify and characterise novel respiratory and meningeal pathogens with potential to cause outbreaks and to assist with response to respiratory disease outbreaks
- To be a source of local and regional expertise on respiratory diseases and meningitis
- To engage in directed and relevant research to answer questions related to regional respiratory disease and meningitis communicable disease problems and their surveillance and management
- To build local and regional capacity in epidemiology and laboratory diagnostics for respiratory disease and meningitis
CRDM is accredited in accordance with ISO 15189 and, as such, complies with all quality management requirements.
For more information about the Epidemiology team at CRDM, some of whom will be serving as mentors to accepted trainees, please see the NICD’s page under the Mentorship Team heading.
You can also visit the CRDM’s website here: https://www.nicd.ac.za/centres/centre-for-respiratory-disease-and-meningitis/
CHARM
Centre for Healthcare-Associated Infections, Antimicrobial Resistance and Mycoses
The Centre for Healthcare-Associated Infections, Antimicrobial Resistance and Mycoses (CHARM) serves as a national hub of expertise in the fields of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and mycoses. Relevant to these three focus areas, the Centre conducts surveillance, outbreak investigations, public health-focused research and provides national reference laboratory diagnostic services and teaching and training. Strategic information from these activities is shared with the South African Department of Health and other major stakeholders.
The AMR reference laboratory conducts laboratory-based surveillance for ESKAPE bacterial pathogens, provides a service for phenotypic and genotypic identification of resistant bacteria and their mechanisms of resistance and maintains the national stock culture collection of pathogenic bacteria and fungi. Meanwhile, the mycology reference laboratory conducts laboratory-based surveillance for serious fungal diseases, including candidemia and cryptococcosis and provides a service for identification, antifungal susceptibility testing and genotyping of fungal pathogens.
Among other distinctions and a strong publication record, CHARM was designated a World Health Organization Coordinating Centre for AMR in June 2017, and is also the National Coordinating Centre for the WHO Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (GLASS.)
For more information about the Epidemiology team at CHARM, some of whom will be serving as mentors to accepted trainees, please see the NICD’s page under the Mentorship Team heading.
You can also visit CHARM’s website here: https://www.nicd.ac.za/centres/centre-for-healthcare-associated-infections-antimicrobial-resistance-and-mycoses/