pre exposure prophylaxislatest news & developments
What’s the best way to spend the HIV prevention budget so that the country can drive infections down as fast as possible? We take a look at what modelling data shows. (Pexels, kaboompics)

180 000 infections in 2024, 47 000 by 2045 — if SA rolls out the twice-a-year HIV prevention jab fast enough

The HIV prevention shot, lenacapavir, will be rolled out at South African clinics within the next couple of months and from 2027, the health department will also buy generics. But how best to spend the HIV prevention budget so that the country can drive infections down as fast as possible? We take a look at what the modelling data shows

  • Eyaaz
9 min read
Who should get SA’s first batch of lenacapavir jabs? Here’s how different scenarios compare. (Mufid Majnun/Unsplash)

SA’s first batch of LEN jabs will arrive in February. Use Bhekisisa’s dashboard to find out who should get them

Who should get what slice of the pie once the medicine is available in public clinics? And are numbers alone what would drive decisions?

  • Eyaaz
11 min read
To end Aids by 2043, the South African government says it could get a group of local pharmaceutical companies to make generic shots of lenacapavir from 2027 onwards. There is, however, a hitch. None of the companies that will be involved have a licence to make the jab. (Julia Koblitz/ Unsplash)

SA wants to make its own six-monthly HIV prevention jabs by 2027. But there’s a hitch

None of the companies that will be involved have a licence from the inventor of Lenacapavir, Gilead Sciences, to make the jab

  • Eyaaz
9 min read
One in 10 clinics in South Africa will start to hand out a twice-a-year anti-HIV jab as early as February. The country’s medicines regulator, Sahpra, says it’s on track to announce its registration decision within the next few days, by the end of October. So who should get LEN first? (Anna-Maria van Niekerk)

The six-monthly anti-HIV jab could be in 360 clinics by February. Who should get the first doses?

The country’s medicines regulator Sahpra says it’s on track to announce its registration decision by the end of October

  • Eyaaz
10 min read
Long shot?: In April next year, South Africa plans to start rolling out an anti-HIV jab, taken only twice a year, that could end Aids in the country within 14 to 18 years. But is our public health system equipped to keep track of millions, who are on the shot? (Unsplash)

The six-monthly anti-HIV jab is coming. But can SA keep track of millions of users?

The shot, called Lenacapavir, has a 100% success rate in preventing young women from getting HIV through sex

  • Eyaaz
10 min read
Two Indian generic drugmakers — Hetero and Dr Reddy’s — will be funded by the Gates Foundation and Unitaid, respectively, to produce and sell the twice-a-year anti-HIV shot around R692 per person per year. (Anna-Maria van Niekerk)

Two drugmakers will sell the 6-monthly anti-HIV jab for the price of the daily prevention pill

Hetero and Dr Reddy’s will be funded by the Gates Foundation and Unitaid to produce and sell the twice-a-year anti-HIV shot around R692 per person a year

  • Eyaaz
9 min read
Nompilo Mdluli — in brown jacket — and Simphiwe Matsebula — in black jersey are worried that the Pepfar pause on HIV services in eSwatini could negatively affect the lives of people living with HIV especially daily access to antiretroviral treatment which helps keep their virus under control.

People living with HIV in fear as impact of donor funding cuts begin to show in eSwatini

HIV prevention services have been heavily affected by the pause on the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids in the country, with remote mobile clinics that served hard-to-reach people now closed

  • Eyaaz
7 min read
HIV vaccine the only real answer

How the health department will deal with Pepfar’s near collapse

Until recently, the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief funded nonprofits in South Africa to help provincial health departments test people for HIV and put them on treatment

  • Umamah Bakharia
10 min read
A volunteer demonstrates an HIV screening test. (File photo)

Trump’s funding cuts hit HIV, GBV services hard

The US president’s cutting of financial support has cut life-saving treatment for many in SA

  • Umamah Bakharia
7 min read
The original grants of Pepfar-funded organisations who are funded through the Centres for Disease Control have been reinstated after a federal judge enforced a temporary restraining order blocking US President Donald Trump’s administration from freezing federal grants. (Shealah Craighead/Flickr)

Some Pepfar projects can now restart in full, without a waiver

A federal judge has enforced a temporary restraining order blocking Donald Trump from freezing federal grants

  • Des Erasmus
7 min read
US President Donald Trump said this week that the tariff is meant to address the trade imbalance between South Africa and the US. (Photo: Evan Vucci/AP/picture alliance)

UPDATE | Embassy confirms Pepfar projects will restart, despite Trump aid ban

Such programmes still qualify for a limited waiver, which will expire towards the end of April, but only for approved activities

  • Des Erasmus
7 min read