South Africa: Our Anti-HIV Jab Will Be Rolled Out in 6 Weeks. But Funding Cuts Hollowed Out The System Needed to Deliver It
The rollout of the HIV prevention jab lenacapavir in South Africa will be heavily affected by the Trump administration's funding cuts, according to a new report. South Africa's first shipments of lenacapavir arrived in late March and early April, with rollout expected to start in late May or early June.
The uptake of the HIV prevention jab lenacapavir in South Africa will be heavily affected by the Trump administration's funding cuts, a new report has found. Researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 40 participants, including doctors, nurses, and government health workers, who had personal experience of the funding cuts in Cape Town and Johannesburg. The funding cuts destroyed much of the infrastructure needed to create demand for the medicine, such as community-based testing and field recruitment for HIV prevention services. South Africa's first two shipments of lenacapavir, totaling 37,920 doses, arrived in late March and early April, with rollout expected to start in late May or early June. Lenacapavir is almost foolproof in stopping HIV-negative people from getting the virus through sex, and scientists estimate that if between one and two million people without HIV get the injection at least once a year, the country could prevent enough new infections to stop AIDS from being a big public health threat by 2043.
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