South Africa starts rollout of twice-yearly HIV-prevention shot
A long-acting injectable that showed strong protection in trials is now reaching patients, though advocates say supply must scale.
South Africa has begun rolling out lenacapavir, a twice-yearly injectable HIV-prevention drug, after trials in South Africa and Uganda showed strong protection. The government has secured enough doses to cover roughly 456,000 people for a year, a meaningful start that advocates nonetheless call short of what is needed given annual new infections. As a global public-health milestone with African data at its core, the rollout is a rare good-news story in the continent’s health calendar.
Source: OkayAfrica (June 2026).