Training
The NICD is a valuable resource available to all universities and technikons, and provides training for medical registrars, intern medical scientists and intern medical technologists in public health-oriented communicable diseases. The training function is both in laboratory science as well as in field epidemiology for which the Field Epidemiology Laboratory Training programme (FELTP) has been developed. Opportunities to train in unique settings such as the BSL-4 laboratory can also only be offered by the NICD.
The Polio Research Foundation (PRF) Training centre is located at the NICD, and offers a large auditorium, named in memory of Prof James Gear, for lectures, as well as two smaller lecture theatres. Prof James Gear was one of most illustrious researchers who gained international recognition in the fields of infectious diseases, especially poliomyelitis. Prof Gear is an icon who played a pivotal role in developing the polio vaccine.
There are various labs that form part of the training centre – a molecular lab, virology lab and microbiology lab to name but a few.
