The two key goals in managing the HIV epidemic are getting as many people with the virus as possible onto ARV treatment and reducing the number of new infections. The results of a study from KZN, published in The Lancet HIV, suggest we’re stalling on the prevention front. The study is well done and important, but the situation may not be as bleak as the authors suggest.
South Africa’s rollout of lenacapavir, a six-monthly HIV prevention injection, requires nurses to learn, adapt and find ways to make it work for patients. Christina Pitt unpacks how.
From counselling about small nodules to overcoming people’s fears of needles, Biénne Huisman takes the pulse of a new HIV prevention injection’s rollout in the Western Cape.
Ten months after an enabling court judgment, some pharmacists in South Africa can finally start applying for permits that allows them to dispense HIV prevention pills without a script from a doctor. Catherine Tomlinson reports.
A new antiretroviral combination pill that is taken only once a week appears to work as well as daily pills at treating HIV. This is according to interim study findings to be presented next week at the AIDS 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
As South Africa marks 50 years since the June 1976 youth uprising for a dream of freedom, a new generation of young people dreaming of an HIV-free future gave their time, trust, and participation to help deliver a breakthrough new HIV prevention product that was launched this June, writes Ntando Yola.
With a new six-monthly injection, South Africa last week launched the most promising new HIV prevention tool in years, but much of the infrastructure that made HIV prevention services accessible to high-risk groups has been dismantled over the last year. Amy Green asks whether we can successfully deliver this breakthrough technology without the trusted pathways that were decimated by cuts to aid from the United States.
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.
From the limited rollout of a new HIV prevention jab to developments with new weight loss medicines, to high-stakes court cases relating to National Health Insurance (NHI), 2026 is set to be another tumultuous year in healthcare. Here are nine stories that Spotlight will keep a close eye on.
The year’s biggest health story by far has been the cuts to US aid for health and US support for health research. But it’s also been a year of important HIV prevention developments, NHI court cases, ongoing crises in some of our provincial health departments, and some first steps toward accountability for the corruption at Tembisa Hospital.
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.
A new HIV prevention jab has the potential to bring an end to the AIDS epidemic. But a lack of ambition and unjustifiable secrecy over pricing is holding it back, argue three leading health activists.
