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":293979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[134,527,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-293978","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}