Public health surveillance perspectives from provincial COVID-19 experiences, South Africa 2021.

Unlabelled: Previous pandemics, recent outbreaks, and imminent public health events are a clarion call for functional public health surveillance systems that timeously detect public health events, guide interventions, and inform public health policy. We reviewed the Eastern Cape Provincial coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) surveillance approach to determine best practices and opportunities to strengthen public health surveillance. We conducted a document review of COVID-19 surveillance reports, tools and guidelines prepared between March 2020 and November 2021.

Fatal Rodentborne Leptospirosis in Prison Inmates, South Africa, 2015.

Leptospirosis is a neglected zoonotic disease. In 2015, leptospirosis was diagnosed in 2 prison inmates in South Africa. Using real-time PCR and DNA sequencing, we identified Leptospira interrogans serogroup Icterohaemorrhagiae in rodents and water samples within the prison.

Risk factors for mortality among adults registered on the routine drug resistant tuberculosis reporting database in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, 2011 to 2013.

Introduction: South Africa is among countries with the highest burden of drug resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB). The Eastern Cape Province reported the highest MDR-TB mortality rates in South Africa for the 2010 treatment cohorts. This study aimed to determine risk factors for mortality among adult patients registered for DR-TB treatment in the province.