South Africa News

Dr Rirhandzu Norah Mongwe is on the frontlines of Limpopo Province’s COVID-19 vaccination response.

“There is something about smoke (wafting around) your head that’s cool. Why is that?” South African comedian Riaad Moosa has been pondering the image and allure of smoking to conjure up punchlines on the ills of tobacco use during his comedy tours.

The KwaZulu-Natal provincial Department of Health with technical support from WHO South Africa organized the COVID-19 vaccination intra action review (IAR).

The Omicron variant is reaching more countries in Africa and weekly COVID-19 cases in the continent surged by 93%. However, there are signs of hope as preliminary data indicates that hospitalizations across South Africa remain low.

TB is still one of the top infectious killers in the world, with 1.4 million people having died from TB in 2019. Meanwhile, Drug-resistant TB remains a public health crisis which is estimated to affect 77,000 Africans each year. The African region accounts for 25% of the global TB burden, with more than 500,000 African lives lost to this disease every year. Of these deaths, 58 000 were in South Africa. In South Africa HIV and TB remain colliding epidemics with 62% of TB deaths being among people living with HIV. In 2019 there were 360 000 new TB infections, 58% of them were in people living with HIV. On the other hand, TB was the cause of death for half of all HIV-related death (36 000 out of 72 000) in 2019. This underscores the importance of integrated TB and HIV interventions and services. Presenting a message of support on behalf of the UN family in South Africa at this year’s National World TB Day (WTBD) commemoration, the WHO Representative in South Africa, Dr Owen Kaluwa, called on the government and other stakeholders to bridge the financial gap for the TB response and to accelerate efforts towards achieving the targets and commitments to End TB, for the benefit of the South African population and her future generations.

The Nelson Mandela Metro and the Sarah Baartman Districts, two of the six health districts in the Eastern Cape Province have been reporting upward increase of confirmed COVID-19 cases during first three weeks of November. These were attributed to among others poor adherence to social distancing, inappropriate mask-wearing and other challenging hygiene practices. Most were also traced to local universities, schools and attendance of large gatherings. In Port Elizabeth, the WHO Representative in South Africa, Dr Kaluwa joined the Minister of Health, Dr Zweli Mkhize and the Eastern Cape MEC of Health Ms Sindiswa Gomba in their oversight visit

The World Health Organization (WHO) commends the government of South Africa for its determined efforts that have helped to bend the COVID-19 pandemic curve. WHO is greatly encouraged by the ongoing measures to suppress the spread of SARs-COV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The Regional Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, on 14 August introduced the first phase of the surge team of WHO health experts, deployed to support South Africa's COVID-19 response management, to a high-level delegation from the government. The experts were welcomed at a reception which included WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus (virtually), South African Minister of Health Dr Zweli Mkhize, Deputy Health Minister Dr Joseph Phaahla and Director-Deneral of health, Dr Sandile Buthelezi as well as the WHO Country Representative Dr Owen Kaluwa and Resident Coordinator of the UN in South Africa, Ms Nardos Bekele-Thomas.