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HIV/Aids
Demand for new HIV jab outstrips supply in African rollout
Demand for the twice-yearly HIV prevention injection lenacapavir is outpacing supply in parts of Africa, with distribution covering a fraction of estimated need and...
LEN jab launch date announced
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has said that the breakthrough long-acting HIV prevention injection Lenacapavir will be available at selected health facilities from 5 June,...
Life insurance cover good news for HIV+ employees
Momentum has announced it will now extend life insurance coverage to HIV-positive employees, the updated risk management framework enabling healthy HIV-positive individuals to now...
SA’s ARV programme stagnates in 2025 – new Thembisa estimates
The number of South Africans on antiretroviral treatment remained roughly unchanged from 2024 to 2025, according to new estimates, suggesting that the disruption of...
Why South Africa’s boys should also get the HPV vaccine
South Africa’s 2026-2030 strategy, which will soon be launched, aims to get girls vaccinated from the age of nine against HPV before they turn...
Africa's HIV response must pivot from aid dependency to ownership
Africa has to make a critical shift towards self-sufficiency in addressing its HIV challenges, emphasising the need for ownership, sustainable financing and strengthened health...
Global Fund to cut SA’s grant by 25% in two years – in eight years it will be gone
South Africa has less than eight years before one of the most important sources of funding for its HIV and TB programmes falls away,...
Novel HIV combo pill gets FDA nod
Merck has received FDA approval for its Idvynso, a combination regimen that brings its novel islatravir to market for the first time, offering an alternative...
One in three young girls in Africa untested for HIV
HIV remains one of the biggest public health challenges in sub-Saharan Africa, a region which accounts for about two-thirds of 40m people with HIV globally....
US cuts threaten SA’s LEN rollout – global report
The global Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has warned that South Africa’s planned rollout of HIV prevention shot lenacapavir (LEN) is being jeopardised by...
Man ‘cured’ of HIV, cancer, after stem cell transplant from brother
An HIV patient in Oslo has been in remission for five years since a stem cell transplant from his brother, who was found resistant...
Delayed anti-HIV doses of LEN land in SA
South Africa’s first consignment of LEN, the twice-a-year anti-HIV injection lenacapavir – 37 920 doses – landed last week at OR Tambo Airport via...
Low CD4 count linked to cervical cancer risk – Swiss-SA study
A team of scientists, led by the University of Bern, Switzerland, and in collaboration with the Universities of Cape Town and Stellenbosch, has found...
Landmark South African study shows efficacy of HPV vaccination
A national HPV vaccination programme can be extremely effective in a high HIV-prevalence setting, a Wits-led research published in The Lancet Global Health shows...
Lessons learnt in the anti-HIV drug race as CAB-LA falls behind LEN
The two-monthly HIV prevention injection, cabotegravir (CAB-LA), was approved more than three years ago but never reached government clinics. Now, as the new and...
Guaranteed orders vital for anti-HIV jab production – Aspen
The country’s largest generic manufacturer, Aspen Pharmacare, has warned that local drugmakers will need guaranteed demand to produce Gilead’s twice-year HIV prevention shot lenacapavir,...
SA leading the charge for made-in-Africa anti-HIV jab
South Africa’s National Aids Council (Sanac) has asked local drug companies to submit applications by 7 April to make generic versions of the anti-HIV...
Cipla joins legal challenge as Aids drug tender row escalates
The Department of Health’s controversial Aids drug tender is under fresh attack, after Cipla filed an application in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) last...
What HIV has taught Judge Edwin Cameron
HIV made him expect to die at 40. Now 73, retired Constitutional Court Justice Edwin Cameron remembers when being told you had HIV meant...
Suppliers’ business rescue threatens critical medicines supply
The supply of critical medicines, including the three-in-one anti-Aids drug taken by most HIV patients, and morphine, is under threat after suppliers were placed...
KZN barges ahead with untested circumcision device
KwaZulu-Natal Health has procured 96 000 CircumQ circumcision devices through a controversial tender currently being challenged in court by CircumQ’s competitor, Unicirc, which alleges...
Pepfar fund debacle should be wake-up call, say MPs
Opposition parties say the government should do more to hire unemployed medical graduates to improve healthcare services and prevent any reduction in HIV/Aids testing,...
HIV stigma still a major challenge, new report finds
Discrimination and stigma remain a major challenge for HIV+ people in South Africa, according to the 2024 HIV Stigma Index 2.0 report, which found...
Nurse wins 'unjust dismissal' case over alleged ARV theft
A Free State nurse who was dismissed in 2021 for allegedly stealing anti-HIV medication from the MUCPP Community Health Centre in Bloemfontein has been...
Seventh HIV cure tied to stem cell transplant
A handful of people with HIV have been cured after receiving HIV-resistant stem cells – but a man who received non-resistant stem cells has...
SA lines up plans to make its own six-monthly anti-HIV jab
The government says it could fill the potential gap in the number of doses of the HIV prevention jab Lenacapavir (LEN) needed to end...
Transforming adversity into opportunity after US cuts
As World Aids Day 2025 was acknowledged this week, CAPRISA director Professor Salim Abdool Karim reflects, in Spotlight, on the frantic days following the...
‘World Aids Day belongs to Africa’
The US State Department warned employees not to use government funds to commemorate World Aids Day this month and to “refrain from publicly promoting...
Fewer HIV deaths but lifestyle disease risks worsen – Discovery
The effectiveness of sustained adherence to anti-retroviral treatment has led to a significant decline in mortality rates among people living with HIV, according to...
HIV drugs roll-out under threat in court tender row
The National Department of Health has come under legal fire from the SA subsidiary of Indian generic pharmaceutical manufacturer Hetero, which alleges that the...
Special budget allocation for HIV projects not enough, warn critics
Despite Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana having tabled a special appropriation Bill providing an extra, emergency R754.5m to the Health budget in the financial year,...
Poverty, poor living conditions, drive pandemics – UNAIDS report
Poor people are likelier to fall ill, and take longer to recover, according to a newly released report by the Global Council on Inequality,...
Plunge in public healthcare services after Pepfar cuts
Nearly half of hundreds of public health facilities surveyed by the community-led monitoring group Ritshidze have been operating at a reduced capacity since the...
SA firms lose out on lenacapavir production
South African companies were excluded from Gilead Science’s voluntary licensing for the anti-HIV drug lenacapavir because those that were evaluated in 2024 did not...
Pharmacists allowed to dispense ARVs, appeal court rules
The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has dismissed, with costs, an appeal by a doctor’s organisation, the IPA Foundation, aimed at stopping specially trained...
Lifestyle diseases bring down SA life expectancy
Non-communicable diseases are reversing decades of progress in HIV/Aids treatment in South Africa, with statistics released this weekend showing that contrary to global trends,...
Plan for ‘special Bill’ to plug health funding gap
National Treasury says it is planning to approach Parliament for a Special Appropriation Bill to bridge the funding shortfall in Health and the gap...
Donors enable deal for $40 generic anti-HIV ‘miracle’ drug
Thanks to generous donor support, two Indian manufacturers will be able to mass produce cheap ($40) generic versions of the HIV “miracle” drug lenacapavir...
Wits' microneedle patches offer easier treatment for HIV+ children
The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) is developing a new generation of microneedle patches as a painless, easy-to-use alternative to deliver a simpler form...
SA risks regressing to ‘dark days’ of HIV-Aids deaths
Experts have warned that South Africa risks a return to the dark days of multiple Aids-related deaths unless it resolves the funding cut crisis,...