South Africa sets June 5 lenacapavir launch as Uganda starts rollout

South Africa will begin providing Gilead’s HIV prevention shot, lenacapavir, on June 5, the health minister announced in his budget speech to parliament on Wednesday. Uganda has launched the rollout of lenacapavir, a twice-yearly, long-acting HIV prevention injection, at Lira Regional Referral Hospital.

Lenacapavir has been hailed as a potential game-changer in the fight against HIV as the twice-yearly injection provides users with almost perfect protection against the virus. Uganda said this groundbreaking, free subcutaneous pre-exposure prophylaxis offers high effectiveness against HIV, with an initial 19,200 doses aimed at high-risk groups to help fight HIV infection.

In South Africa, the first batch of almost 38,000 doses of lenacapavir arrived in early April, but access to the shots has been delayed by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority’s requirements for postimportation testing. The health department’s rollout of lenacapavir prioritises health districts with high HIV incidence and restricts the offer to pregnant and breastfeeding women, adolescent girls and young women, men who have sex with men, transgender people and injecting drug users.

The health department expects to start about 229,360 people on lenacapavir in the first year. “In the next two weeks, we will be delivering lenacapavir stocks to depots and health facilities, starting with 360 health facilities in the high [HIV] burden districts,” the minister said.

South Africa is home to an estimated 8-million people living with the disease, or 17% of the world’s burden. “We are in a position where we dare say we can eliminate HIV/Aids as a public health threat by 2030. All we have to do is to work hard … together as South Africans, motivated by a common bond and … a common destiny,” the minister said.