{"id":105072,"date":"2026-04-08T10:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T08:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/?p=105072"},"modified":"2026-04-08T10:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T08:38:08","slug":"first-batch-of-hiv-prevention-drug-arrives-in-sa-after-6-week-delay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/first-batch-of-hiv-prevention-drug-arrives-in-sa-after-6-week-delay\/","title":{"rendered":"First batch of HIV prevention drug arrives in SA after 6-week delay"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sameera Casmod | sameerac@radioislam.co.za<\/a>
\n8 April 2026 | 10:37 CAT
\n2-minute read<\/p>\n

\"\"

Image source: South African Government News Agency<\/p><\/div>\n

The Department of Health announced that South Africa\u2019s first consignment of a twice-a-year anti-HIV injection arrived at OR Tambo International airport via two shipments from Dublin, Ireland last week. Over 35\u00a0000 doses reached the country six weeks later than expected, Dr Fikile Ndlovu, the Department of Health\u2019s Deputy Director General for HIV, AIDS, TB and Maternal Health said in an interview<\/a> on Radio Islam International.<\/p>\n

South Africa has approved Lenacapavir, becoming the first African country to authorise the near-100% effective prevention tool that will primarily target at-risk individuals, including adolescent girls, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and other individuals at high risk. The ground-breaking drug is scheduled for a limited public sector rollout starting this month.<\/p>\n

Dr Ndlovu explained how the medication works.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a prevention injection which means anyone who’s HIV negative now\u00a0can be able to take the injection twice a year and it protects them from getting the\u00a0infection, the HIV.\u201d<\/p>\n

The initial batch consists of 37 920 \u201cinitiation packs\u201d (which include both the injection and preparatory pills) for the first quarter of 2026, which is significantly fewer than the 57\u00a0135 initiation packs the health department originally ordered.<\/p>\n

The country is expected to receive a total of 342 100 doses throughout 2026, consisting of 227 980 initiation packs and 114 120 continuation packs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ll be getting the other stock,\u00a0one stock is coming at the end of April, then in May,\u201d Dr Ndlovu said.<\/p>\n

Modelling studies suggest that ~ 1-2 million people need to be on the injection annually, which equates to millions of doses per year.<\/p>\n

The rollout is primarily funded by\u00a0a R513-million grant from the Global Fund, which covers a total of 947\u00a0450 doses from Gilead Sciences between this year and next. This constitutes about 3% of the total doses needed to end AIDS by 2043.<\/p>\n

To cover the massive shortfall between the current donor-funded doses and the actual need, South Africa aims to roll out generics by 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>They’ve also then allowed six other companies to be able to make\u00a0the generic drug, and then once they’ve made it in the next year or two, we will be getting the\u00a0generic one, which will come at a much cheaper, that we can also afford as a country,\u201d Dr Ndlovu said.<\/p>\n

The 6-week delay in the delivery of the first consignment was caused by\u00a0a combination of complex logistics between the Global Fund and manufacturer Gilead Sciences, coupled with necessary regulatory approvals.<\/p>\n

The Global Fund had to stagger shipments to nine “early adopter” African countries to manage supply chain logistics and optimise the shelf life of the product to prevent wastage. Before the medication could be shipped, two specific approvals were required, including a label exemption from SAHPRA and a VAT exemption from SARS. Additionally, the ongoing conflict in the Middle East resulted in a significant loss of freight capacity for the airlines involved in transporting the medication.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen<\/a> <\/strong>to the full interview with Dr Fikile Ndlovu on Sabaahul Muslim, presented by Moulana Sulaimaan Ravat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sameera Casmod | sameerac@radioislam.co.za 8 April 2026 | 10:37 CAT 2-minute read The Department of Health announced that South Africa\u2019s first consignment of a twice-a-year anti-HIV injection arrived at OR Tambo International airport via two shipments from Dublin, Ireland last week. Over 35\u00a0000 doses reached the country six weeks later than expected, Dr Fikile Ndlovu, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":105073,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28,4995],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-south-africa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/lenacapavir.png?fit=270%2C162&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-rkI","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 15:34:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105072"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105074,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105072\/revisions\/105074"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}