HIV-prevention pill available at 36% of public healthcare facilities, says health department

published on February 2, 2021 by Amy Green, in Daily Maverick

HIV-prevention pills are now available at 1,227 government health facilities around the country. While far from the 100% target, this is a substantial improvement on the roughly 160 facilities that provided the pills six months ago.

In February 2020, the national department of health told Spotlight that it aimed to make a pill to prevent HIV infection available at all community health centres and primary healthcare clinics in South Africa by the end of September 2020.

With only 36% of public healthcare facilities providing the pills by January 2021, government has fallen short of this ambitious target.

But while government places most of the blame for this on the catastrophic impact of Covid-19, experts suggest there is more to it than just the pandemic.

Currently in South Africa, which is home to the biggest HIV epidemic in the world, HIV prevention efforts include four main interventions – condoms, prevention pills, voluntary medical male circumcision and access to antiretroviral therapy for people living with HIV (people living with HIV are non-infectious as long as ARVs successfully suppress the virus in their bodies).

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HIV-prevention pill available at 36% of public healthcare facilities, says health department

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