The sudden spike in malaria cases in Gauteng earlier this year - with more than 400 infections and 11 deaths in the first three months of 2026 - has been attributed to people visiting neighbouring provinces and countries soon after the severe January floods hit large parts of southern Africa.

The vast majority of recent malaria cases reported in Gauteng were not transmitted by mosquito bites within the province, but were "imported" by residents who had visited other countries and provinces where the disease is endemic and exacerbated by severe floods earlier this year.

In a public webinar on October 21 entitled "What caused the 2026 spike in malaria cases in Gauteng?", senior University of Pretoria malaria expert Professor Tiaan de Jager said the high number of malaria cases reported in Johannesburg and Pretoria earlier this year came as a shock in a province where the disease was not endemic.

Many of the infected people had complained of flu-like symptoms, not realising until much later that they were suffering from malaria.

De Jager, the founding director the university's Institute for Sustainable Malaria Control, noted that the 414 malaria cases recorded in Gauteng, in just the first quarter of 2026, represented an 80% increase compared with the total number of cases the entire previous year.

The number of cases in Mpumalanga also rose by 355%, by 68% in Namibia and by more than 50% in Mozambique over the same period.

The underlying cause of this increase was due to...