HIV

HIV

Interactive Data Dashboards

Track the HIV & TB response

Live indicators, province breakdowns and downloadable data.

  • Salim Abdool Karim | Transforming adversity into opportunity for the AIDS response

    As World AIDS Day 2025 swings by, CAPRISA Director Professor Salim Abdool Karim reflects on the frantic days following this year’s unprecedented cuts to health aid and research funding from the US, arguing that the deliberate disruptiveness was designed to be cruel. Nonetheless, he argues, our HIV response must now forge ahead on a path…

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  • TIMELINE | The journey of HIV through science, struggle, activism, and hope

    From the first reported cases of HIV in 1981 to the latest breakthroughs in long-acting prevention, this Spotlight timeline traces key moments in the global and South African response to the virus. It highlights scientific milestones, political controversies, activism, and the human stories that shaped one of the most significant public health challenges of our…

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  • Why government should provide more free HIV self-tests

    It is estimated that around half a million people living with HIV in South Africa don’t know they are living with the virus. One way to help these people is by offering them the means to test themselves in the privacy of their own homes. As Catherine Tomlinson explains in this Spotlight special briefing, such…

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  • Integrating health services for mom and baby could reduce clinic visits by half

    In South Africa, many mothers and their babies have to visit the clinic more than 10 times in the first six months of the postnatal period. Early findings from an ongoing implementation science project suggests we can get this down to five. The hope is that the new approach will also help reduce HIV transmission…

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  • SA has relatively high anal cancer rates, but we rarely screen for it

    South Africa has the world’s largest population of people living with HIV, which both heightens the risk of anal cancers and their severity. However, neither the collection of data nor the efforts for prevention and screening are in line with the likely impact. Experts say significant change is needed, reports Elna Schütz.

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  • Spotlight launches new HIV dashboard

    Spotlight has launched a new HIV dashboard and graph generator based on outputs from the Thembisa model. Our hope is that this dashboard will help the public and people working in healthcare to find important HIV numbers more easily. Please take a look and let us know what you think of it.

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  • Withdrawal of US aid has hurt South Africa’s HIV programme

    The number of HIV viral load tests is significantly lower than expected, according to an analysis of data from the National Health Laboratory Service which Spotlight and GroundUp obtained through the Promotion of Access to Information Act.

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  • Breakthrough HIV prevention jab given green light in SA

    An HIV prevention jab that provides six months of protection at a time was given the green light by South Africa’s medicines regulator. The approval helps to clear the way for a limited public sector rollout of the “game-changing” shot set to start in April 2026.

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  • ARVs without a script: What next after major court ruling?

    A landmark ruling from the Supreme Court of Appeal means specially trained pharmacists will soon be allowed to dispense antiretrovirals without a doctor’s script. Pharmacists with the required training will need special permits from the director general of health. While no pharmacists yet hold these permits, Catherine Tomlinson reports that they may be able to…

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