In South Africa, injectable HIV prevention drugs could be a game changer, offering hope and protection to some of the most vulnerable groups. But high costs, accessissbility and effectiveness in women and the LGBTQ+ community remain a concern.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Nearly 20% of adults in South Africa live with HIV.
00:05That's among the highest incidence rates in the world.
00:08LGBTQ plus individuals and young women like Vuyokazi Makele are particularly vulnerable.
00:15As a young woman living in South Africa, especially females,
00:19they're not really, really much given the proper education, you know, about health.
00:27Economic inequality also disproportionately affects women,
00:31limiting their access to quality health care.
00:34Many feel pressured into relationships with older men, often without access to protection.
00:39But promising clinical trials exploring injectable HIV medication could be a game changer.
00:46Patients receive injections every two or six months as opposed to taking daily pills.
00:52I'm still young.
00:53It's only old people that will, you know, keep the discipline of always having to remind themselves,
00:58OK, I need to drink black pills, you know.
01:01So, yeah, I'm young. I live my free life. I will forget.
01:06Experts say injectable PrEP eliminates needing to carry or take pills publicly,
01:11reducing the stigma associated with HIV.
01:14PrEP can also be used without a partner's cooperation.
01:18This is particularly important when a woman fears violence from her partner
01:22if she asks them to use a condom.
01:25Researchers like Angela Tembo say these factors could revolutionise HIV prevention.
01:31Their vulnerability is because of their social and economic status in the country.
01:36They have least access to economic benefits because of cultural issues as well.
01:40The girl child is often forgotten in the household.
01:43You find that they make very bad decisions with regards to older partners
01:47and also in terms of their sexual activities where they succumb to condom-less sex
01:52and even in some cases multiple partners as a way to make an income.
01:57In South Africa, clinical trials are underway for long-acting drugs called Lenacapavir and Cabotagravir.
02:05However, there are hurdles to overcome.
02:08While PrEP has been used successfully in homosexual men for several years,
02:12clinical studies have shown a mixed picture regarding the effectiveness of PrEP in women.
02:17It's also not certain how transgender people respond to long-acting HIV medication.
02:23A disproportionately high number of transgender South Africans are HIV positive.
02:28Researchers in Benizintwana feel trans people are being excluded from consideration.
02:34A huge part of our transgender population is poor, is working class,
02:39and I feel like they aren't being accommodated in terms of access to care or healthcare.
02:43Benizintwana's partners are also considering trying injectable medication,
02:47but they want more information first.
02:49Yes, I have heard about the injectables and I thought about them as something
02:53that I would rather get onto as opposed to the pills.
02:57I'm not very educated on the side effects involved with PrEP,
03:00so there's not much awareness I think available to me.
03:03And I lack a person who's going to give me their lived experience
03:07on how PrEP treated them in my community.
03:12Among the unknowns, there's one fact.
03:15Long-acting HIV medication is currently more expensive than daily pills presently on the market.
03:21Getting the drugs to remote communities will also be a challenge.
03:26A realistic timeline to get these injectables at a fair price to people who need it,
03:31I mean it depends on how hard we want to fight and how much we want to lobby and advocate.
03:38Realistically speaking, 10 to 15 years, that's when we'll have access to these things,
03:44if we do it the right way.
03:46While advances in HIV treatment are promising and indeed groundbreaking,
03:51health officials are still wary of calling PrEP and other long-acting drugs the silver bullet.