I have had the personal privilege, honour and pleasure of serving in the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and its predecessor institutes – the South African Institute for Medical Research (SAIMR) and the National Insitute for Virology (NIV) – for close to four decades. After my involvement in creating the NICD and serving as its founding director, I retired from the institute and have watched it grow to its illustrious present.

As 2019 was coming to a close Covid-19 arrived, the most serious pandemic to afflict humankind since the devastating Spanish influenza of 1918/1919. Covid-19 ignited unprecedented interest in public health and especially as it pertains to communicable diseases. The NICD was at the forefront of informing the public and guiding the authorities during the pandemic.

It seems that there is broad interest in hearing the story of the NICD. A goodly number of my professional colleagues, past and present, as well as non-professional friends, have urged me to tell the story of this venerable institution. Colleagues in the fields of communicable diseases and public health have been curious to learn about the origins of the institute and what went into its development, its colourful history and the rocky road of the early days. Many of my clinical colleagues have been keen to understand what lies behind the advisories, the bulletins and the research emanating from the institute. During Covid-19, but also for many years in the past, the NICD has occupied a prominent position through various reports in the media generating widespread and extensive interest from the non-professional but informed public. I would venture that a number of good citizens driving past the gates of the institute on Modderfontein Road on the north-eastern outskirts of Johannesburg wonder what exactly lies on the other side of the fence, and what goes on behind the scenes in those buildings. It was to provide answers to this broad spectrum of interests that inspired me to write this book.