The SAMRC was featured in the Commonwealth Health Report 2020 on Achieving Universal Health Coverage in South Africa. The publication comes at a time when health is in the headlines across the world. Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has been declared a global health emergency by the WHO, and is putting huge pressure on countries’ health services and reinforces the need to build stronger health systems for universal health coverage.

Two female scientists from the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) have been lauded for their contribution to Rooibos by the South African Rooibos Council (SARC).

To mark our 50th anniversary we collaborated with the South African Medical Journal (SAMJ) to publish fifteen peer reviewed articles which highlight the groundbreaking research and innovation by our researchers and the impact of their work, both nationally and globally.

This special publication provides a glimpse of the great depth and diversity of our activities which includes basic laboratory investigations, clinical research and public health studies.

Distinguished HIV/ Aids scientists Professors Salim Abdool Karim and Lynn Morris have been named by Web of Science Group as highly cited researchers in the world. This comes after the Group released the list of Highly Cited Researchers for 2019 early this week.

Following the introduction of the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill to parliament in August this year, a group of scientists from the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) have also weighed in on the discussion, focusing on what may not have been stated on the bill but needed to be known.