A new World Health Organization Guidelines Report has been launched focusing on the prevention and diagnosis of the Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD). Researchers from the South African Medical Research Council contributed to these guidelines, with Prof Liesl Zühlke – SAMRC Vice-President Extramural Research and Internal Portfolio, being part of the Guidelines Development Group. Profs Tamara Kredo and Mark Engel - Unit Directors from the Health Systems Research Unit and Cochrane South Africa, respectively, were part of the technical working group.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are a leading cause of death globally. More than 41 million people die due to NCDs each year. Most of these premature deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. NCDs are on the rise in Africa. NCDs are preventable and share common risk factors such as tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, unhealthy diets, and lack of physical activity. Consumption, of unhealthy diets high in Sugar have been linked to obesity and NCDs.

The South African Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (SACENDU), a project of the Mental Health, Alcohol, Substance use and Tobacco Research Unit of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), is a vital initiative established in 1996 to monitor trends in alcohol and other drug (AOD) use across South Africa.

South Africa continues to grapple with a high prevalence of HIV and TB-infected patients, with co-infection often being commonplace. These patients experience immune dysregulation and multiple drug exposures and with that are at increased susceptibility to drug hypersensitivity (allergy) and developing adverse drug reactions, such as life-threatening severe cutaneous adverse reactions (SCARs), which are dermatologic or skin reactions.

ASSAf annually awards ASSAf Science-for-Society Gold Medals for outstanding achievement in scientific thinking to the benefit of society. This year the awards were presented to two eminent scientists and one of them being Prof Keertan Dheda, director of the Centre for the Study of Antimicrobial Resistance which is an SAMRC Extramural Research Unit.