Whether or not someone living with HIV in South Africa gets a one- or three-months’ supply of antiretrovirals at a time depends partly on the clinic where they happen to go for HIV care. Ahead of World AIDS Day 2024, Elri Voigt unpacks the legal and policy issues relating to prescriptions and HIV medicine refills and asks why people living with HIV are treated so differently in different parts of the country.
Stopping antiretroviral treatment when you are living with HIV can result in increased HIV transmission, illness, hospitalisation, and eventually death. To combat such disengagement with HIV treatment, Professor Graeme Meintjes and colleagues argue we need smarter differentiated care and better education of healthcare workers, people living with HIV, and communities.
Study findings presented this week at a major HIV conference show that taking a statin every day substantially reduces the chances of suffering a major adverse cardiovascular event in people living with HIV who have a low-to-moderate risk of cardiovascular disease. The findings were also published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Elri Voigt unpacks the study findings and asks what it might mean for people in South Africa.
We know antiretroviral therapy can prevent HIV infection, but can natural biological substances do the same? The results of a recent scientific trial have answered this question: Yes, using broadly neutralising antibodies. But what are broadly neutralising antibodies? How do they work? And when will the average person get access to them? Amy Green breaks down the science.
