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.
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.
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.
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.
A Supreme Court of Appeal ruling in October 2025 cleared the way for specially trained and permitted pharmacists to dispense antiretroviral medicines without a doctor’s script. Seven months later, no pharmacists are yet providing these services. Catherine Tomlinson explores the reasons for the delay.
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.
Along dusty roads in northern KwaZulu-Natal, Biénne Huisman speaks to youth leaders, community mentors and leading scientists who are collaborating to bring a groundbreaking HIV prevention jab to this area where HIV infection rates remain stubbornly high.
It has been a bruising year or so for medical researchers in South Africa with the US pausing, cancelling, and then resuming some grants. But as bad as things were, what played out wasn’t the worst case scenario, and momentum is now building toward recovery.
Weeks after pledging to end child stunting by 2030, President Cyril Ramaphosa has kick-started a task team to drive this urgent national mission. But what concrete steps could government actually take to end stunting? Spotlight sat down for an in-depth interview with one of the country’s leading experts on the issue.
Funding cuts over the last year or so have created a crisis for multilateral health institutions. Which institutions emerge from this crisis, and in what form, will have real consequences for the health of people in South Africa, argues Spotlight editor Marcus Low.
A cutting-edge, South African-led HIV vaccine trial built on decades of research recently kicked off in Cape Town. Elri Voigt unpacks what exactly is being studied, and how the resilience, tenacity and urgency of a group of dedicated South African researchers made it possible.
District managers in South Africa’s public healthcare system currently have to juggle funding from multiple government budget lines, each with different strings attached. To improve district health services, we urgently need to simplify and integrate these funding flows, argues Russell Rensburg.
