Why we don’t have long-acting HIV treatment 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.

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Pilot projects set to inform rollout of HIV prevention shot

South Africa is expected to begin piloting the HIV prevention injection early next year as one of several projects that experts hope will reveal the answers to some of the biggest questions about the future of the shot – who will deliver the injection, where, and how to sell people on the idea that just six shots a year could protect them from HIV. Laura Lopez Gonzalez reports.

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SA expected to begin piloting HIV prevention shot in early 2023

South Africa is expected to begin piloting the every-other-month HIV prevention shot early next year, according to the international medicine financing initiative Unitaid. New modelling shows that the injection could prevent as many as 52 000 new HIV infections in the next two decades. But to be cost-effective in South Africa, the research argues, the price of the injection must fall to levels drugmaker ViiV Healthcare says are unrealistic. Laura Lopez Gonzalez reports.

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Women in Health: “I don’t like seeing anybody treated unfairly” – new leader of HIV Clinicians Society

Juliet Houghton was recently appointed as the CEO of the Southern African HIV Clinician’s Society (SAHCS). As part of Spotlight’s Women in Health series, Bienne Huisman spoke to her about her life working in HIV, her new role at the SAHCS, the importance of being able to laugh, and the Shakespearian origins of her name.

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