In a previous work, we estimated the SAR and SI of pH1N1 among the first 100 cases detected in South Africa by prospectively examining virus transmission between household contacts [22] . We found a SAR of 10% and a mean SI of 2.3 days (SD 61.3, range 1-5) between successive laboratory-confirmed cases in the transmission chain. When additionally including suspected secondary cases into the analysis, the SAR increased to 17% and the SI to 2.7 days (SD 61.5, range 1-6). In this work we incorporate data collected on all laboratory-confirmed cases detected during the 2009 pH1N1 epidemic in South Africa with the aim of describing the transmissibility characteristics (initial R t and temporal variation of R t ) of the epidemic in the country and compare its dynamics with those observed in other countries in the same year.