Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi says South Africa has received the lion’s share of Lenacapavir doses on the continent.
Nine countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, have secured access to the drug.
The new injectable HIV/AIDS prevention drug was officially rolled out in Mpumalanga on Friday.
Motsoaledi says that the drug is expensive, but a global fund has assisted in providing the continent with two million doses.
“Remember, I informed you that the pill is very expensive. It’s sold in America. It’s twenty-eight thousand dollars to treat one person per year, which there is no country here on our continent that will ever be able to afford. It’s impossible. But what has happened is that the global fund, which has always been funding HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria for the past more than two decades, stepped in to buy two million doses for those African countries that are poor. We got the lion’s share in South Africa at 900,000 doses. That’s what we’re given.”
Discussion | Lenacapvir: a new tool in South Africa’s fight against HIV:
‘Pills must be taken after injection’
The Minister has hailed the antiretroviral drug as a powerful instrument in the fight against HIV and AIDS, saying the drug is aimed at preventing HIV negative individuals from contracting the virus.
Motsoaledi says four pills must be taken after the injection has been administered.
“The injection goes together with four pills … We give you the injection and you take two pills immediately. In the box, there are four pills. You take two pills immediately. Then they give you the box to go home with the other two pills inside. After exactly 24 hours, you take those two other pills, and that is the end with the pills. You just take four at the beginning … And then from there, you continue with the injection every six months, as we said.”
360 public health care centres
Speaking at the official launch, President Cyril Ramaphosa says HIV/AIDS has left a destruction and scars in many families across the country and the globe.
He says 360 public health care centres in the country’s provinces will be administering the drug to save lives. The President urges young people to continue using other preventative measures available beyond the new drug.
“To young South Africans know that your future worth protecting take advantage of the prevention options that are available to all of us and one says all this because recently we saw a rise, so that we become and more aware of what we need to do because lenacapavir is not a silver bullet yes it gives us hope but there are various steps that must continue taking.”
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