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HIV/Aids
UN meeting renews commitment to end Aids by 2030
Last week’s United Nations High-Level Meeting on HIV/Aids concluded with an overwhelming majority of member states adopting a new political declaration and a reaffirmed...
US to end HIV funding for SA, but government unfazed
South African lives are at stake with the United States planning to phase out its HIV funding for Africa, say experts, but government says...
Global leaders killing the system to fight AIDS – that took decades to build
With aid and critical funding cuts leaving the vulnerable more exposed, the legacy for which previous generations battled is being deliberately dismantled, writes David...
Minister promises SA-made generic as LEN rollout begins
South Africa launched the revolutionary anti-HIV Lencapavir with much fanfare last week, with the Health Department announcing plans to expedite the manufacture of the...
Why pharmacists still can’t prescribe ARVs after SCA ruling
A Supreme Court of Appeal ruling in October 2025 cleared the way for specially trained and permitted pharmacists to dispense antiretroviral medicines without a...
Rare people invulnerable to HIV hold blueprint for cure
Scientists are studying the few extraordinary individuals whose bodies seem able to naturally defend themselves from HIV, in the hope of finding new cures,...
LEN rollout will miss a critical group of South African men
The South African rollout of the long-acting injectable Lenacapavir, which prevents HIV with two shots a year and which began this month, prioritises adolescent...
SAHRC to probe Cape man’s HIV misdiagnosis
A formal complaint has been lodged with the SA Human Rights Commission by a man who was misdiagnosed with HIV a quarter of a...
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,...