A self-test for H.I.V. in Harare, Zimbabwe. The every-six-months injection was found to provide better protection than the current oral drug for what’s called pre-exposure prophylaxis, also taken as a daily pill. Photo Credit: Aaron Ufumeli/EPA, via Shutterstock
Health The WorldMajor Breakthrough in Protecting Women from HIV
A new antiviral vaccine is proving to give women total protection from HIV.
“For a young woman who can’t get to an appointment at a clinic in a town, a young woman who can’t keep pills without facing stigma or violence, an injection just twice a year is the option that could keep her free of HIV,” says Lillian Mworeko, leader of the International Community of Women Living With HIV Eastern Africa group.
A large clinical trial recently took place in Uganda and South Africa, where the vaccine, lenacapavir, was injected once every six months. The idea was to see if the vaccine could provide better protection against HIV than daily pills, and the results were overwhelming: once injected, there were zero new infections amongst the 2,134 women in the trial group. The results were so convincing that the trial ended early, and all participants were offered the injection because of its superior protection against the virus compared to the daily pills. This injection could be the future of HIV protection across the globe!
