Durban – South Africa is expected to pilot a HIV prevention shot by 2023.
News24 reported that the injection could prevent as many as 52 000 new HIV infections in the next two decades.
More than 8 million South Africans are living with the virus, according to the Department of Health.
Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI) and the national Health Department will provide the injections to young women as part of a small Unitaid-funded project, News24 said. Unitaid is a global health initiative.
The aim of the injection, which is given every other month, is to prevent HIV infection in HIV-negative people.
Unitaid said it expected The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority to approve the injection early next year, according to News 24.
The injection, which could cost over R390 000 per person for a course of treatment in the US, and would have to be priced at about R1 800 in South Africa.
ViiV Healthcare spokesperson Catherine Hartley told Spotlight that manufacturing was more expensive and much harder than for generic oral PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis).
In June, KZN Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane expressed concern over the low use of PrEP.
She said fewer than 100 000 people in KZN were enrolled for the PrEP pill, which was highly effective at preventing HIV infection.
The province has more than 2 million current infections.
PrEP is available at all clinics, community health centres and hospitals.
The Department said the most common side effects for PrEP included headache, nausea, vomiting, rash, and loss of appetite. For most people, these will go away after a few weeks.
IOL