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HIV/Aids
HIV+ groups battle to access state services, study finds
The fall-out from Pepfar funding cuts for HIV programmes three months ago continues to reverberate, with three specialised clinics in Cape Town serving key...
Time for SA to stand on its own, Aids experts agree
Healthcare and Aids activists agreed that it was time to face up to the reality of the US funding cuts – and its enormous...
Concerns grow over lenacapavir price transparency
South Africa may be able to start rolling out the twice-yearly anti-HIV drug lenacapavir (LEN) in January 2026 – three months earlier than planned...
Lenacapavir to be rolled out via Pepfar to selected countries
The news that the US Government has made a pre-market commitment to purchase the twice-yearly highly effective injectible drug lenacapavir from Gilead Sciences for...
Hard reality of Trump’s aid cuts in east Africa – 100 days later
Aid cuts in east Africa have resulted in some babies being born with HIV because mothers could not get medication, a rise in life-threatening infections, and...
SA companies lose out on ARV drugs tender
The National Department of Health’s decision to give the lion’s share of the latest R15.5bn Aids drug tender to Aspen Pharmacare but shun many...
How Botswana eliminated paediatric HIV
Political will, free maternity care and digital health tools have helped Botswana achieve high standards for ending mother-to-child transmission, the first African nation to...
Game-changing Lenacapavir to be rolled out from next year
More than 300 government clinics are in line for the first roll-out of the widely-hailed twice-yearly anti-HIV jab lenacapavir within the next two years...
Patients say clinic nurses force them to have HIV tests
Residents in at least three provinces say they have been coerced into undergoing HIV testing at various government health facilities, and that in some...
Optimism as phase 3 trials launch for new monthly anti-HIV pill
An HIV prevention pill that could provide a month of protection per tablet has been approved to proceed to pivotal trials to test its...
Documents unveil US plan to phase out Pepfar
Pepfar – the campaign to end HIV globally – earned a short-lived reprieve recently when US Congress voted to restore $400m in funding, but...
SA HIV programme future unclear as Pepfar dodges $400m cut
The US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) is to be spared a $400m funding cut that formed part of President Donald Trump’s...
New injectable HIV drug could be much cheaper, study shows
A recent analysis has shown that the long-acting injection for HIV prevention – lenacapavir – could be made for as little as $25 per...
Treasury bails out HIV/Aids projects blindsided by Pepfar cuts
While Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi’s recent tabling of the 2025/26 Health Budget vote and the spending priorities showed efforts to plug some funding...
SA's fight against Aids gets major boost – but there’s a catch
South Africans will receive the groundbreaking lenacapavir drug, seen as the best option to help end Aids in the country, thanks to a R520m...
Low screening, weak referrals, drive SA’s high cervical cancer rates
Compared with other countries, South Africa has a much higher global cervical cancer rate – between 22.8 and 27 per 100 000 women, with...
Appeal for cost of generic long-acting HIV drug to be lowered
Health activists have urged pharmaceutical manufacturer Gilead Sciences to lower the price of its twice-yearly, long-acting injection for HIV prevention, saying the jab –...
Government applauded for HIV combat efforts amid US cuts
South Africa’s efforts to maintain its fight against HIV-Aids, despite the massive funding cuts from the United States, have been acknowledged by United Nations...
How Trump derailed crucial HIV research
Years of work have gone down the tubes with the Trump administration’s cancelling of its financial aid grants, thwarting the Herculean efforts of leading...
Aids denialism deja vu as government denies funding crisis
Two decades after South Africa’s denialism battle, HIV scientists and government are again at odds, with scientists accusing the Health Minister of denying the...
HIV testing drops after aid cuts, but Minister denies system collapse
The government has defended its progress in dealing with the US funding cuts and their crucial impact on HIV and Aids programmes in South...
SA’s health burden rises as ageing HIV+ population doubles
Experts are raising the alarm yet again – and more so in the wake of the US funding cuts – regarding the alarming numbers...
Europe failing in fight against HIV, TB and STIs
Regional health authorities have warned that many countries in Europe will miss a target to combat HIV, TB, hepatitis, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs)...
SAMRC study finds HIV death stats worse than thought
It is widely acknowledged among health and demographic experts that relying solely on what is written on death certificates is not always an accurate...
With twice-yearly PrEP jab, is an HIV vaccine still vital?
The discovery of a highly efficacious option for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) that requires only twice-yearly administration has led to the question of whether...
Another 150 000 HIV infections possible by 2028 from aid cuts
A modelling study commissioned by the National Department of Health into the impact of the Pepfar funding cuts has revealed that this could result...
'Game-changing' lenacapavir roll-out hangs in the balance
Aids activists say that if South Africa was able to roll out the twice-yearly anti-HIV jab to enough HIV-negative people, new infections could slow...
State turns to mining firms, Discovery to plug HIV and TB funding gaps
Mining companies that have, traditionally, provided drugs and treatment to combat HIV and TB in their workforces, are being asked to consider rolling out...
Fewer South Africans dying of HIV, but infection numbers rising
The number of South Africans with HIV continues to rise, passing 8m in 2024, according to recently released estimates from Thembisa, the leading mathematical...
Trump plans to dump CDC’s HIV prevention division
The Trump administration is considering eliminating the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s division focused on HIV prevention and shifting its responsibilities to another...
Bone marrow transplant ‘cures’ French HIV patient
A patient at the Sainte-Marguerite Hospital in Marseille could be the first case of someone being cured of HIV in France – thanks to...
Minister says SA will reach HIV treatment goals despite aid cuts
US President Donald Trump’s aid cuts will not derail SA’s goal of providing treatment to an additional 1.1m HIV patients by December, Health Minister...
More work vital for HIV campaign’s success, say experts
Amid major disruptions caused by aid cuts from the United States Government, the National Department of Health aims to enrol an additional 1.1m more...
Baby boys from KZN hold hope for HIV cure
Twenty-three years ago, 11-year-old Nkosi Johnson stepped on to the stage at the International Aids Conference in Durban, and addressed an audience of 60m....
Mashatile promises patients six-month supply of ARVs
Deputy President Paul Mashatile has announced that the government will provide HIV-positive patients with a six-month supply of antiretroviral (ARV) medication, a notable boost...
Pepfar boss to resign before Trump takes office
Ambassador John Nkengasong, head of the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar), says that because he is a political appointee, he will be...
Where we stand with the HIV epidemic
It’s 40 years since Aids was first identified. Major strides have been made since the spread of the virus reached epidemic proportions in 1995...
SA women could have three-monthly anti-HIV ring by 2026
A flexible silicone ring that slowly releases antiretrovirals is one of just two long-acting HIV prevention products registered for use in South Africa, but...
Probe after patients get HIV from organ transplants
Brazilian health officials are scrambling to explain how six transplant patients in the country’s well-regarded public health system received organs infected with HIV –...
Gilead in talks with SAHPRA to register twice-yearly anti-HIV jab
Gilead Sciences, which makes the six-monthly anti-HIV injection, has approached the SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) to discuss how to get the shot registered...