On June 5 2026, an HIV prevention injection will for the first time become available at some of South Africa’s public sector clinics. In this Spotlight special briefing, Marcus Low and Elri Voigt pull together all you need to know about this “breakthrough” jab.
HIV treatment has been improved and simplified significantly over the years yet a small fraction of people living with HIV still take complex multi-pill regimens. Elri Voigt reports on a new combination pill that could make life easier for some in this group. But as two leading experts point out, the development comes against a backdrop where the traditional categorisation of HIV medicines is dissolving.
By March 2027, the health department aims to have 1.5 million people living with HIV on a new programme where they can get a six-month supply of antiretroviral medicines at a time. Early indications suggest that implementation of the programme is slow and uneven, reports Christina Pitt.
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 time.
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.
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 start applying for them as soon as next month.
In response to US funding cuts for South African health services and research projects, National Treasury has provided the National Department of Health with hundreds of millions of rands in emergency funds. Spotlight and GroundUp look at how precisely the government intends to spend this money.
Spotlight and GroundUp published a two-part exposé showing how US aid cuts led to the deaths of children in Mozambique. Here, Jesse Copelyn considers what led to this tragedy and who should bear responsibility for it.
South Africa is staging a sequel to Mbeki-era denialism, only this time, the science, solutions, and costs are clearer, argues Professor Francois Venter.
After the abrupt termination of American aid, the health system in central Mozambique descended into chaos. In part two of this special series, Spotlight and GroundUp describe how the funding cuts affected hospitals, where key staff were dismissed and deliveries of new medicines were halted. In the ensuing turmoil, children died.
In Mozambique, the health system is overwhelmingly built on US money. When the Trump administration instantly pulled much of this funding without warning, disease and death spread. Spotlight and GroundUp visited one of the worst affected regions to describe the human toll.
US funding for clinical research in South Africa is incrementally being cancelled. This is happening through at least two processes – the first is by banning certain kinds of foreign grants called sub-awards (which is affecting everyone globally). The second is by failing to issue routine renewals of grants for clinical studies in South Africa. Spotlight and GroundUp break down the current situation.
