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hiv aidslatest news & developments
South Africa has rolled out lenacapavir — a twice-yearly injectable that offers near-complete protection against HIV. Photo: Mufid Majnun/Unsplash
HIV AIDS

What the HLM must deliver for Africa

South Africa, a leader in HIV response with the world's largest antiretroviral treatment programme, advocates for sustained and predictable global resourcing at the High-Level…

  • Aaron Motsoaledi
4 min read
Hiv Aids Treatment by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Pix4free.org
HIV AIDS

Why the HLM matters: Civil society will not be a footnote in New York

The 2026 UN High-Level Meeting on HIV/Aids presents a crucial opportunity, but its success hinges on governments partnering with civil society, not just using them for optics.…

  • Solly Nduku
3 min read
HIV AIDS

Why the HLM Matters: I was born with HIV – do not make decisions about me without me

A 22-year-old South African HIV activist, born with the virus, shares her powerful perspective on living with HIV and calls on world leaders at the High-Level Meeting on HIV/Aids…

  • Ibanomonde Ngema
3 min read
HIV AIDS

Why the High-Level Meeting on HIV matters

Diagnosed with HIV in 2000 when it was a death sentence for many Africans, the author reflects on 25 years of the fight against the epidemic. Ahead of the UN High-Level Meeting…

  • Yvette Raphael
6 min read
PUBLIC HEALTH

Why the HLM matters: The world cannot afford to lose this moment

The UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on HIV/Aids is set to address the alarming decline in political will and funding, which threatens to unravel decades of progress in HIV…

  • Alankar Malviya
5 min read
Against the odds: South Africa’s democracy has matured in visible and subtle ways, the Constitution enshrined gender equality, expanded access to education, healthcare and economic opportunities. Photo: ConCourt
2010 FIFA WORLD CUP

Three  decades on: Assessing South Africa’s Progress since 1994

The democratic breakthrough of 1994 stands as one of the most significant political achievements of the modern era. Against the odds, South Africa chose negotiation over civil…

  • Cornelius Monama
7 min read
What’s the best way to spend the HIV prevention budget so that the country can drive infections down as fast as possible? We take a look at what modelling data shows. (Pexels, kaboompics)
ANTIRETROVIRAL DRUGS

180 000 infections in 2024, 47 000 by 2045 — if SA rolls out the twice-a-year HIV prevention jab fast enough

The HIV prevention shot, lenacapavir, will be rolled out at South African clinics within the next couple of months and from 2027, the health department will also buy generics.…

  • Linda Pretorius
9 min read
Aloof: Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana criticised for trivialising grievances of the people. Photo: GCIS
BUDGET 2026

Budget 2026: Between reform and reality

South Africa has been given a narrow window to turn the ship around. Whether this Budget becomes a footnote or a foundation depends on what happens next — in Cabinet, in the…

  • Marlan Padayachee
7 min read
South Africa’s first consignment of lenacapavir (LEN), the twice-yearly anti-HIV injection, arrived at OR Tambo International Airport last week. Photo: Mufid Majnun/Unsplash
ANTIRETROVIRAL DRUGS

SA’s first batch of LEN jabs will arrive in February. Use Bhekisisa’s dashboard to find out who should get them

Who should get what slice of the pie once the medicine is available in public clinics? And are numbers alone what would drive decisions?

  • Linda Pretorius
  • Jacques Verryn
11 min read
To end Aids by 2043, the South African government says it could get a group of local pharmaceutical companies to make generic shots of lenacapavir from 2027 onwards. There is, however, a hitch. None of the companies that will be involved have a licence to make the jab. (Julia Koblitz/ Unsplash)
AARON MOTSOALEDI

SA wants to make its own six-monthly HIV prevention jabs by 2027. But there’s a hitch

None of the companies that will be involved have a licence from the inventor of Lenacapavir, Gilead Sciences, to make the jab

  • Mia Malan
9 min read
Four toilets, built in 2013 by the organisation Candice Andisiwe Sehoma founded, are still flushing, although floods of raw sewage flow daily through the streets of Alexandra. (Sean Christie)
AIDS

Building toilets, fighting TB: Candice Andisiwe Sehoma’s life of activism

From discontinued insulin pens to overpriced TB drugs, meet the young South African holding drug makers to account on behalf of patients

  • Sean Christie
10 min read
One in 10 clinics in South Africa will start to hand out a twice-a-year anti-HIV jab as early as February. The country’s medicines regulator, Sahpra, says it’s on track to announce its registration decision within the next few days, by the end of October. So who should get LEN first? (Anna-Maria van Niekerk)
AARON MOTSOALEDI

The six-monthly anti-HIV jab could be in 360 clinics by February. Who should get the first doses?

The country’s medicines regulator Sahpra says it’s on track to announce its registration decision by the end of October

  • Mia Malan
10 min read
The Botswana Network on Ethics, Law and HIV/Aids says the crisis is not an isolated supply-chain issue but a ‘systemic failure’ that demands urgent government intervention
AFRICA

Botswana faces new HIV scare as shortage of medicines deepens

The Botswana Network on Ethics, Law and HIV/Aids says the crisis is not an isolated supply-chain issue but a ‘systemic failure’ that demands urgent government intervention

  • Oarabile Mosikare
3 min read
According to a survey, 85% of managers reported that their clinics faced staffing shortages, though only one in five blamed these on the US President’s Emergency Plan For Aids Relief cuts
AIDS

Clinics short-staffed after Pepfar funding cuts

According to a survey, 85% of managers reported that their clinics faced staffing shortages, though only one in five blamed these on the US President’s Emergency Plan For Aids…

  • Liezl Human
2 min read
Long shot?: In April next year, South Africa plans to start rolling out an anti-HIV jab, taken only twice a year, that could end Aids in the country within 14 to 18 years. But is our public health system equipped to keep track of millions, who are on the shot? (Unsplash)
AIDS

The six-monthly anti-HIV jab is coming. But can SA keep track of millions of users?

The shot, called Lenacapavir, has a 100% success rate in preventing young women from getting HIV through sex

  • Ida Jooste
  • Mia Malan
10 min read
Two Indian generic drugmakers — Hetero and Dr Reddy’s — will be funded by the Gates Foundation and Unitaid, respectively, to produce and sell the twice-a-year anti-HIV shot around R692 per person per year. (Anna-Maria van Niekerk)
ANTIRETROVIRAL DRUGS

Two drugmakers will sell the 6-monthly anti-HIV jab for the price of the daily prevention pill

Hetero and Dr Reddy’s will be funded by the Gates Foundation and Unitaid to produce and sell the twice-a-year anti-HIV shot around R692 per person a year

  • Mia Malan
9 min read
Nompilo Mdluli — in brown jacket — and Simphiwe Matsebula — in black jersey are worried that the Pepfar pause on HIV services in eSwatini could negatively affect the lives of people living with HIV especially daily access to antiretroviral treatment which helps keep their virus under control.
AFRICA

People living with HIV in fear as impact of donor funding cuts begin to show in eSwatini

HIV prevention services have been heavily affected by the pause on the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids in the country, with remote mobile clinics that served hard-to-reach…

  • UNAIDS
7 min read
The health department anticipates that it could start to use government money to buy cheaper generics of anti-HIV jab the lenacapvir by April 2027. (Unsplash)
AARON MOTSOALEDI

SA plans anti-HIV jab roll-out at hundreds of clinics by April

The health department hopes to make the twice-a-year anti-HIV injection lenacapavir available soon and to be buying generics by 2027

  • Mia Malan
11 min read
ROOM WITH A VIEW: Ndiviwe Mphothulo at home in Glenvista, not far from where he grew up in Jabavu in Soweto. (Sean Christie)
APARTHEID

At 16, he mediated a highjacking. Now he’s negotiating for the survival of HIV programmes

Ndiviwe Mphothulo, a medical doctor and president of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society, is trying to make sure the Trump administration’s funding cuts don’t collapse…

  • Sean Christie
14 min read
How can data help the health department make the most of the R622 million extra it received for South Africa’s HIV treatment programme? (Flickr)
95 95 95 UN TARGETS

Most people on ARVs stay on them. Does our health system know that?

The health department has R622 million extra to prop up South Africa’s HIV treatment programme in the wake of foreign aid cuts, but it’s only about a fifth of the total gap

  • Linda Pretorius
  • Jacques Verryn
9 min read