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HIV/AIDS
SA company gears up to produce vaginal ring
That a Johannesburg company – Kiara Health – will start manufacturing affordable and flexible silicone rings to protect women from HIV is a crucial...
Health Department considers six-month ARV supplies to meet targets
South Africa is behind target on efforts to ensure 95% of people with HIV are on sustained treatment, and in an attempt to remedy...
SA urges Pepfar to buy more African HIV/Aids drugs
South African pharmaceutical companies have urged the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) to shift 2m patients to made-in-Africa HIV/Aids medicines by...
HIV-prevention jab rolled out in pilot project
The new HIV-prevention injection is now available to a select number of people in South Africa, with the fact that a single shot provides...
CDC updates privacy guidelines for HIV sample tracking
Guidelines relating to a controversial practice used by American state and local health departments to curb HIV infections were updated last week by the...
SA firm to produce contraceptive anti-HIV vaginal rings
Within the next few years, South African company Kiara Health of Johannesburg is to start manufacturing the vaginal ring contraceptive for women, which protects...
Call for HIV prevention strategies to evolve as risk perceptions change
The irony of the success of the decades-long focus on HIV/Aids treatment is that the disease is no longer seen as high-risk, especially among...
HIV cases drop in SA, but so does condom use
The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) says that while fewer South Africans have HIV and more people are getting treatment, a growing proportion of...
Pepfar boss pledges ongoing support to SA in HIV/Aids fight
Despite American Congress not reauthorising funding for a further five years – after a political row over abortion derailed the process – the head...
Health Department slams cost of anti-HIV CAB-LA shot
Government is fuming over the newly announced price of the two-monthly anti-HIV injection from Viiv Healthcare, calling its non-profit price – between R540 and R570...
Eswatini on track to end Aids by 2030
In 2020, Eswatini became the first African country to achieve the 95-95-95 target, well ahead of 2025, and since then, seems on track to...
Politics holds up US funding of Pepfar
More than $1bn in funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) has been delayed in the US, in the latest complication...
HIV prevention pill uptake in SA climbs to 1m users
By the end of May this year, more than 1m public healthcare users – 1 033 805 – had started using the HIV prevention...
'Colossal impact' fears as US anti-abortion lobby threatens to kill Pepfar
A decades-old US-funded global Aids programme that supports South Africa’s health sector, as well as that of 38 other African countries with billions of...
‘Geneva’ HIV patient possibly cured in new case
Another HIV patient has been off antiretroviral medication for 20 months without detectable HIV levels after undergoing stem cell transplant to treat cancer, but,...
Nearly 5m South Africans placed on new HIV medicines in four years
In what is possibly one of the largest treatment roll-outs in South African history, more than 4m people with HIV have started taking the...
New guidelines and ARVs for SA children with HIV
Several sessions at the recent 11th SA AIDS conference held in Durban highlighted the worrying fact that key HIV numbers – like treatment coverage –...
Why SA pilots of HIV prevention shots and vaginal rings have been delayed
Last year it was reported that pilot projects testing out a new HIV prevention injection and a vaginal ring in South Africa would start...
Couples intervention boosts joint HIV testing: HSRC/UK study
Researchers involved in the collaborative Igugu Lethu study – a couples-focused intervention aimed at promoting couples’ HIV testing and counselling – revealed that of the...
Challenges in developing 'vital' HIV vaccine
The genetic diversity of the HIV virus is greater than any other pathogen, and constructing an effective vaccine is vital, despite its scientific challenges,...
Unacceptable that people are still dying from AIDS, conference hears
Despite major strides to curb HIV infection, and boasting the world's largest ARV treatment programme, people are still dying from AIDS in South Africa...
New HIV cases and resulting deaths on the decline in SA
The rate of new HIV infections in South Africa continues to fall, with statistics showing that in 2022, there were an estimated 164 000...
SA’s HIV testing formula to change
For years, South Africa has used HIV Rapid Diagnostic Tests (finger prick – same-day testing), but the National Department of Health has now decided...
Cipla to produce anti-HIV injection in Benoni, Durban
The South African arm of Indian drug company Cipla has confirmed that a generic version of the two-monthly HIV prevention injection, CAB-LA (long-acting cabotegravir),...
Global report urges more investment in Aids war
Fully financing the HIV response in Africa to end Aids as a public health threat by 2030 will save millions of lives and improve...
Patient’s HIV remission after umbilical blood stem cell transplant
A transplant of stem cells from the umbilical cord has resulted in an American woman with leukaemia going into remission for HIV for the...
PrEP hopes boosted by anti-HIV suppository trial
Recent research showing that a quick-dissolving, rectal suppository designed to prevent HIV infection is safe could herald the start of a new “take-as-needed” era...
HIV game-change with SAHPRA approval and vaccine trial breakthrough
In what is being hailed as a breakthrough for HIV treatment in South Africa, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has approved...
Start planning cabotegravir injection rollout, say SA experts
There is no time to waste in planning the South African rollout of cabotegravir (CAB LA), the long-lasting antiretroviral injection approved for use in...
WHO report warns on increased drug-resistant HIV in infants
Nearly half of newly diagnosed infants in 10 countries have drug-resistant HIV, a WHO report has found.
HIV drug resistance is on the rise, with...
Britain: NICE guidelines recommend two-monthly antiretroviral injections
Draft guidance from the UK’S National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends offering the antiretroviral drugs cabotegravir and rilpivirine in England and...
UK study: HIV increases risk of multiple comorbidities
People living with HIV in the UK had an increased risk of developing multiple comorbid conditions, according to a study in Medscape.
The findings emphasise...
Coronary plaque found in more than half of HIV cases – COCOMO study
More than half of people living with HIV and suppressed viral loads nonetheless had imaging-confirmed coronary artery disease. But despite long-time use of HIV...
Long-term suppression of HIV while pausing medication — NIH study
Two people with HIV, who were able to stop taking medication for several years without becoming ill from the virus, offer clues for future...
Johnson & Johnson and global partners halt HIV vaccine clinical trial
The primary analysis of Johnson & Johnson's Phase 2b HIV vaccine clinical trial known as the Imbokodo study has been stopped, after showing that...
Fear of side-effects the greatest barrier to long-acting injectable PrEP
Fear of potential severe side effects may be the greatest barrier to long-acting injectable HIV prevention among men who have sex with men (MSM),...
An affordable, optimal second-line HIV treatment now available for low- and middle-income countries
Global health agency Unitaid and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) have announced in a statement a groundbreaking pricing agreement with pharmaceutical company Hetero...
COVID-19 not a risk factor for moderate HIV-positive patients — SA study
HIV is not a risk factor for moderate or severe COVID-19 disease, neither is it a risk factor for mortality, found a South Africaa...
England on track to achieve elimination of HIV transmission by 2030
The annual number of new HIV infections among men who have sex with men in England is likely to have fallen dramatically, from 2,770...
High rates of cervical cancer found in women living with HIV
Spotlight reports that a study recently published in The Lancet medical journal found that women living with HIV made up an estimated 63.4% of...