How to use the anti-HIV jab — and where to find it

The six-monthly anti-HIV jab, which prevents HIV through sex, is now stocked for free at 360 government clinics in six of South Africa’s provinces. The provinces are Gauteng, Kwa Zulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, North West and the Western Cape, according to the health department’s list of clinics. The Northern Cape, Limpopo and the Free State will get jabs next year, when cheaper generic versions of LEN become available and South Africa starts rolling out the shot on a larger scale. At least one generic drug maker, Hetero in India, has applied to register their product with South Africa’s Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) chief executive Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela told Bhekisisa. Semete-Makokotlela says this will be a priority review which will be completed in 180 working days (around eight months), in this case by the end of January 2027. Lenacapavir, in short referred to as LEN, is almost foolproof in protecting HIV-negative people against the virus and has to be taken only twice a year. LEN-FACILITIES-BY-PROVINCE-2-1Download If enough HIV-negative people take the shot — between one and two million HIV-negative people need to take LEN at least once a year between now and 2043 — Wits modelling scientists predict that South Africa could stop new infections fast enough to end Aids as a big public health problem in 18 years. That, they say, could result in South Africa’s approximately 140 000 new HIV infections in 2025 being reduced to about 65 000 a year so that the rate of new infections decreases to 0.1% or below. But to achieve this, the country needs between 18 million and 36 million LEN doses in total over the period 2026 to 2043. South Africa has received only two LEN deliveries — 37 920 doses (via two consignments on 30 March and 2 April) and 19 800 doses on 7 April — of the branded version of the medicine made by Gilead Sciences, paid for with a grant from the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria. The fund says the third delivery of