Zimbabwe Launches Groundbreaking HIV Prevention Drug Lenacapavir<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe has become one of the first countries globally to launch a national program for lenacapavir, a twice-yearly injectable HIV prevention drug, marking a major milestone in the country’s fight to end AIDS as a public health threat.<\/p>\n
Health Minister Douglas Mombeshora officially launched the program Thursday, calling it “an important day in Zimbabwe’s national response to HIV.” <\/p>\n
Developed by Gilead Sciences and approved locally in November, lenacapavir is nearly 100% effective and eliminates the need for daily PrEP pills\u2014a game-changer for those struggling with adherence.<\/p>\n
Rollout strategy <\/p>\n
Funded by the U.S. government and The Global Fund, the initial phase targets over 46,000 high-risk individuals across 24 sites nationwide. <\/p>\n
Priority groups include adolescent girls, young women, and sex workers who face disproportionate infection rates.<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe’s HIV context <\/p>\n
With 1.3 million people living with HIV, Zimbabwe carries one of Africa’s highest burdens. <\/p>\n
However, the country has achieved UNAIDS’ 95-95-95 treatment targets and reduced prevalence from 34% in the early 2000s to approximately 12% today.<\/p>\n
Community response<\/p>\n
In Epworth, community leader Melody Dengu received the jab earlier this month and has already referred 12 others. <\/p>\n
“Lenacapavir is the next best thing to a vaccine,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe Launches Groundbreaking HIV Prevention Drug Lenacapavir Zimbabwe has become one of the first countries globally to launch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,500],"class_list":["post-493069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}