With varying degrees of success, artificial intelligence has begun to play the role of research assistant, radiologist, health educator, and even therapist. In this Spotlight special briefing, Jesse Copelyn tries to see past the hype and pin-points the most immediate implications of these new technologies for healthcare in South Africa.
In South Africa, taking HIV treatment means taking one or more antiretroviral tablets a day. People in some other countries have the additional option of treatment in the form of two injections administered every two months. Elri Voigt unpacks why long-acting HIV treatment is not available in South Africa and asks why the push for HIV prevention jabs has been so much stronger than that for HIV treatment jabs.
Last year a South African woman took a multibillion-dollar United States pharmaceutical company to court with the aim of securing access to life-changing cystic fibrosis medicines. That case has now been dropped following a reduction in the price charged for the medicines in South Africa. Catherine Tomlinson reports.
Taking antiretrovirals to prevent HIV infection mostly still involves swallowing one or more pills a day. Some long-acting products that work for a month or two at a time have been approved but are not yet in wide use in South Africa. As delegates gathered for the 25th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2024) last week, Elri Voigt takes stock of the latest developments in this fast-moving field.
Several of the world’s most important tuberculosis clinical trials of the last two decades were done in part or entirely in South Africa. Tiyese Jeranji chatted to some leading researchers about where the country’s clinical trial capacity comes from and what is needed to maintain and improve it.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, many committees and organisations were working around the clock to prepare the country for the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. Professor Hannelie Meyer, a pharmacist-turned-academic and later vaccine advocate, served on several of these committees. Elri Voigt spoke to Meyer about the pandemic, the mottos that guide her, and being an unapologetic workaholic.
Almost a decade after they were first proven to be safe and highly effective, game-changing medicines to cure hepatitis C are finally becoming more widely available in South Africa. But not all the regulatory and other challenges behind the delay have yet been overcome and, as a result, access remains relatively limited for now. Catherine Tomlinson reports.
The 11th SA AIDS conference, recently held in Durban, highlighted the worrying fact that key HIV numbers such as treatment coverage are much lower in children than in adults. But as Elri Voigt reports, conference delegates also heard about new treatments and guidelines that will make life easier for kids and the exciting potential of several new long-acting experimental treatments.
Last year Spotlight reported that pilot projects testing out a new HIV prevention injection and a vaginal ring in South Africa would start early in 2023. Yet, as delegates gathered for the SA AIDS Conference in Durban last week, those pilots hadn’t yet started. Alicestine October and Elri Voigt have the latest on the state of play with these critical projects.
Millions of doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine procured by the South African government have expired and the shot is largely unavailable to people in the country. Meanwhile, earlier this month, the World Health Organization declared an end to the COVID-19 ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern’. Adele Baleta asks what all this means for COVID-19 in South Africa.
Johannesburg-based investment banker Cheri Nel is the driving force behind a court case that may result in dramatically expanded access to life-changing new cystic fibrosis (CF) medicines. Biénne Huisman asked Nel about the motivation behind the court case and what it is like to live with CF.
In August 2021, the South African Pharmacy Council published legislation in the Government Gazette to enable pharmacists to prescribe and dispense antiretroviral medicines for the treatment and prevention of HIV. A legal challenge then put the brakes on the initiative and the courts are now set to decide whether it can continue. Catherine Tomlinson reports.
