The effort to inject the drug lenacapavir is being launched in South Africa, Zambia and Swaziland (Eswatini) and is supported by the UN health organization Unitaid and the USA.
Lenacapavir can reduce the risk of spreading HIV by 99.9 percent if taken twice a year, AFP reports.
One in five adults in South Africa is living with HIV, and Swaziland and Zambia are also hard hit. The effort in South Africa is being carried out in collaboration with, among others, the prestigious Wits University and Unitaid.
According to a statement from Unitaid, the first individuals have begun receiving the drug, which will be injected every six months.
It is not clear how many people will be included in the program. The doses typically cost about $28,000 – equivalent to about SEK 265,000 per year. The manufacturer Gilead Sciences has agreed to distribute lenacapavir on a non-profit basis to two million people in affected areas over the next three years.
