Latest news with #Aids
The Independent
10 hours ago
- Health
- The Independent
US approves breakthrough HIV jab – but aid cuts mean it may not get to millions in need
US medicines regulator the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a groundbreaking HIV prevention jab hailed as having the potential to quell the Aids pandemic. But the moment has been overshadowed by the spectre of aid cuts, placing in doubt whether this breakthrough injection – lenacapavir – will get to the people who need it most. Lenacapavir given in a twice-yearly injection stops HIV from replicating, protecting close to 100 per cent of people from developing the virus if they are exposed to it. This approval is one of the last crucial steps to getting the drug, branded Yeztugo, out to patients. Although the FDA's approval only applies to US patients, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it paved the way for its own recommendation of the drug and for approval in other countries. Director of WHO's Global HIV, Hepatitis and STI Programmes, Dr Meg Doherty described it as a 'regulatory milestone' adding: 'We are working with partners and national authorities to ensure lenacapavir reaches people who need it most – quickly, safely and equitably.' Researchers have raised concerns that, amid aid cuts, the jab will be too expensive to be taken up by lower-income countries. Gilead – the drugs company producing lencapavir – did not make public the cost of each dose to global funders but it announced a US price of $28,218 per year for each patient. 'If this game-changing medicine remains unaffordable, it will change nothing,' said Winnie Byanyima, executive director of the United Nations' Aids agency, UNAIDS. She called the approval of lenacapavir a 'breakthrough moment' adding the jab, 'could be the tool we need to bring new infections under control – but only if it is priced affordably and made available to everyone who could benefit. ' UNAIDS has seen research that lenacapavir can be produced for just $40 per person per year, falling to $25 within a year of roll out. It is beyond comprehension how Gilead can justify a price of $28,218.' Dr Andrew Hill, a pharmacology research fellow at the University of Liverpool, worked on the research which found lenacapavir could be provided for as little as $25, including a 30 per cent profit margin. 'Scientifically, it's a great moment that we have a drug which has been judged to be safe and efficacious by a leading regulatory authority in the world,'' he said. 'Public health-wise and in terms of the epidemic, it's tragic because the drug is so expensive that it's not going to get used'. It is also unlikely to be affordable in the UK, he said, despite government promises to end new cases of HIV in England by 2030. A Gilead spokesperson said, 'Yeztugo is priced in line with existing branded PrEP [pre-exposure prophylaxis] options. We are working to make Yeztugo accessible for anyone who needs or wants it and expect to see broad insurance coverage in the US. 'We're taking unprecedented actions with urgency to plan for access to lenacapavir for PrEP globally—particularly in low- and lower-middle-income countries where the need is greatest.' Gilead signed agreements with six pharmaceutical companies in India, Pakistan, Egypt, and the US to allow them to make generic versions of the drug in order to increase supply and drive down the cost of the jab. This will take some time. Gilead also agreed to sell enough doses of the jab to protect at least two million people over three years in lower-income countries. These would be paid for by global funders led by the US President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) and the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. However, The Independent reported earlier in the month that these doses are now at risk because of US funding cuts. A significant chunk of the money to fund the doses of lenacapavir was set to come from the US-led global Aids response programme, Pepfar, as well as the Global Fund whose biggest donor was the US. This funding is now uncertain. Figures previously reported by The Independent suggest President Trump's slashing of foreign aid has derailed the projected end of the Aids pandemic and could lead to four million extra deaths by 2030. 'It does feel like this thing that could help us end the epidemic sooner is suddenly receding in the chaos,' said Prof Linda-Gail Bekker, whose trial demonstrated lenacapavir's effectiveness. The aid-funded doses are thought to cost much less than the US list price of almost $30k but still roughly five times more expensive than Dr Hill believes is necessary. And they are in an initial pilot phase, he said: 'We need to get into a different level where we're giving lenacapavir to tens of millions of people'. This is even more important as aid cuts are slashing the HIV prevention budgets of governments across Africa, he said. 'We're in this crazy position where we have a brand new highly effective vaccine-like drug and actually we will probably see the epidemic get worse over the next four years.'
IOL News
11 hours ago
- Politics
- IOL News
President Ramaphosa celebrates 30 years of the Constitutional Court's role in safeguarding democracy
. President Cyril Ramaphosa reflected on the Concourt's remarkable contributions to freedom, dignity, and social justice. Image: Itumeleng English / Independent Newspapers From ensuring same sex marriages, access to HIV/Aids treatment, to ensuring social justice is affirmed, the country's Constitutional Court, which on Friday celebrated 30 years of existence, has been hailed for its contribution to the country's constitutional democracy. President Cyril Ramaphosa reflected on the apex court's contribution to freedom, dignity, and justice during his keynote address at the court's headquarters at Constitution Hill, Braamfontein.. Ramaphosa also extended his gratitude to all the Chief Justices and Senior Justices who have led the highest court in the land over the past three decades. Over the years, the court has handed down some judgments that have had a profound impact on the law in South Africa, including the abolishment of the death penalty in 1995, the 2002 right to health care and access to HIV/Aids treatment, the 2004 right of access to social security by permanent residents, among many others. "When the Constitutional Court was established 30 years ago, it was a bold response to a history that had denied the majority of South Africans basic human rights. The court was tasked with safeguarding the Constitution of 1996. Each role was deeply symbolic, and it acted as a symbol of a bold, immortal legal compass. This court was established and built on the grounds of former president Nelson Mandela to embody and become an instrument of justice," he said. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ The Constitutional Court, led by Chief Justice Mandisa Maya, commemorates 30 years today since its establishment Image: Kamogelo Moichela Ramaphosa intimated that when the Concourt was established by former statesman Nelson Mandela, it sought to ensure that all South Africans' basic human rights were protected as enshrined in the guiding document called the Constitution. "As we cast our minds back to May 1996, when our Constitution was established, and in my capacity as the chairperson. It became our nation's birth certificate, reflecting a history we have emerged from, built on the values of dignity, equality, and freedom. It sought to affirm the identity and legality of every human being... "Just as a parent would attend to the health of their child, the establishment of the court allowed it to be free, as it was born of struggle and hope. "We believe that never again shall South Africa be governed without equality, dignity, and justice for all. This court has contributed not just judicial validation but has also elevated the consciousness of our people and contributed to building trust in our legal and judicial system. It has also contributed to advancing social cohesion and reconciliation, which has been enhanced by this court through its judgments, ensuring that all people are treated fairly, while promising a sense of belonging to all citizens," he added.
The Citizen
18 hours ago
- Health
- The Citizen
Mpumalanga silent on 21 000 missing HIV patients
About 21 000 HIV patients have disappeared from Mpumalanga's treatment system, yet officials remain unclear or deny the extent of the crisis. The Mpumalanga department of health seems uninterested in addressing the problem of about 21 000 HIV/Aids patients who were on treatment disappearing without a trace. During a recent interview with SABC News, health MEC Sasekani Manzini conceded that some patients were missing and said she was optimistic the newly launched HIV campaign 'will help trace people who defaulted on their HIV treatment. 'In this number of 21 000 are those people who have taken treatment before and defaulted and those who have never taken treatment.' About 21 000 HIV patients disappeared from treatment system Surprisingly, yesterday, Mpumalanga department of health spokesperson Dumisani Malamule said: 'The department is not aware of any 21 000 HIV/Aids patients that have disappeared from our database. 'The MEC launched a campaign on 16 May, 2025, in collaboration with the Mpumalanga Provincial Aids Council (MPAC) and other stakeholders in the health sector as part of the province`s ongoing interventions to enhance uptake of life-saving HIV treatment to ensure 95% of people diagnosed with HIV receive and adhere to antiretroviral therapy (ART) to achieve viral suppression.' ALSO READ: South Africa's health advocacy groups: 'Health failing to shield kids from HIV' 'The HIV treatment campaign objective is to close the gap by putting an additional 1.1 million people nationally, while Mpumalanga's target is 134 000, who are living with HIV but are not on treatment by the end of December. All our quality HIV/ Aids treatment care services are continuing very well,' said Malamule. Last year, MPAC chair Sonto Nkosi conceded that the province was facing a problem of patients disappearing. She called on government to locate them and offer the necessary support. DA spokesperson on health in Mpumalanga Bosman Grobler said the party welcomed the fact that the department launched a provincial campaign to get an extra 150 000 people on ARV treatment, but expressed concern about the 21 000 people who are missing. Concern over missing patients He said they would be encouraging people to be on treatment and those who had stopped must also be located. 'We are concerned about the 21 000 Mpumalanga ARV patients that have vanished from the system. This is troubling because the viral load of these patients will increase and it will be easy for them to infect their partners with the virus.' ALSO READ: Over 8 000 SA healthcare jobs lost – and more could follow – after US Pepfar aid cuts 'The DA believes that if these patients are not found as soon as possible, it might reflect negatively on the province's viral load and derail the action of getting more people on ARV treatment. At present, Mpumalanga has the second-highest HIV viral load in South Africa.' Grobler urged the department to conduct door-to-door and radio campaigns to teach about adhering to ARV treatment. He said the department must try by all means necessary to get the 21 000 missing patients to come back to their facilities so that they can get their treatment. Mpumalanga has highest HIV prevalence of all provinces According to the South African HIV Prevalence, Incidence and Behaviour Survey released in 2024, Mpumalanga has the highest HIV prevalence of all provinces (17.4%), meaning that the province has 890 000 people living with HIV. The Mpumalanga department of health has reported that of the 890 000 HIV-positive people in the province, 630 000 are currently on ARV treatment. ALSO READ: Inside SA government's confused response to the USAid funding crisis Statistics show that South Africa has 7.8 million people living with HIV/Aids and at least 5.9 million are on ARV treatment.
IOL News
a day ago
- Entertainment
- IOL News
Jane Birkin's iconic Hermès prototype handbag to auction in Paris
The very first Birkin handbag made for actress Jane Birkin will go under the hammer in July. The piece of modern fashion history is likely to spark a bidding frenzy with experts predicting it could fetch upwards of six figures. The first-ever Birkin bag that was designed by French luxury brand Hermès for late actress Jane Birkin is set to be sold at auction in Paris next month. As Birkin recounted in a 2018 interview, the conversation sparked the conception of what would become one of the most iconic handbags in history. The origins of this Birkin bag is steeped in fashion lore, beginning with a chance encounter between Birkin and the late Jean-Louis Dumas, the then CEO of Hermès , on a flight from Paris to London in 1984. "I had my agenda as usual banged full of bits of paper, and everything fell to the ground," Birkin said during the interview. She continued: 'He said: 'You should have pockets in that agenda', I said: 'What can you do? Hermès don't make it with pockets', to which he replied: 'I am Hermès'." 'I think I drew it on the sick bag - or the not-be-sick bag. And (Dumas) said: 'I'll make it for you',' Birkin told "Vogue". That conversation ignited the inspiration that ultimately morphed into one of the most coveted handbags in fashion history. After Birkin's passing in 2023, the original bag, which she had generously donated in 1994 to support the French Aids charity, Association Solidarité Sida, was acquired in 2000 by Catherine Benier, a vintage store owner and collector based in Paris. The prototype heading to the auction block at Sotheby's in Paris on Thursday, July 10, is unlike any other Birkin. Over the years, the Birkin bag has become a symbol of luxury and status, often fetching astronomical sums at auctions. However, this particular piece comes with a rich history, exhibited in prestigious venues like MoMA in New York and the V&A Museum in London, it has been regarded as more than just a handbag; it embodies the "soul" of early Birkin designs. 'This bag was the very beginning of Le Birkin and we know Jane was proud to have it,' said Aurélie Vassy, head of handbags and fashion at Sotheby's.
Daily Maverick
4 days ago
- Health
- Daily Maverick
Minister Motsoaledi's big HIV treatment jump: Is it true?
More than half a million people previously diagnosed with HIV have started on HIV treatment since the end of February, the health minister says. But can a big jump in 10 weeks really be? We look at the numbers At a glance Last month, the health minister said that more than half a million previously diagnosed people with HIV have been started on treatment since the end of February. But can it really be, especially since the gap to getting 95% of people diagnosed with HIV on medication has been hovering around 1 million for the past five years? Critics say they're sceptical about the minister's figures, and that the country will close the gap by December. We dive into the numbers to see what the picture looks like. Numbers are powerful. They can also be dangerous — if not used correctly. When the health minister said last month that 520,700 more people previously diagnosed with HIV have started on treatment since the end of February, the number sounded astounding. The health department's goal before the end of the year is to find 1.1 million people who know they have HIV but have either never started treatment or fell out of treatment. In his words, the department has reached 'more than 50% of the target' it set out to achieve by the end of the year. If that gap is closed, South Africa would have met two of the three so-called 95-95-95 goals the country signed up for as part of the United Nations plan to end HIV/Aids as a public health threat by 2030. However, knowing exactly how much the gap is closing is tricky, because people who know they have HIV may start and stop and then restart treatment again later – sometimes several times – during the course of their care. In fact, a study from the Western Cape shows that close to half of people on medication stop at least once, and that some even pause and then restart up to three times. So, many of the 520,700 previously diagnosed people Motsoaledi says are now on medication could, at least in theory, very well be people who are counted repeatedly as they cycle in and out of treatment. But because the patient information system isn't digitally centralised – most clinics still keep track of their clients on paper, which means different facilities can't easily access one another's records – someone who stops treatment at one clinic can easily be counted as a new start at another, rather than a restart. The set of UN targets aim for 95% of people in a country with HIV to know their diagnosis, 95% of those being on treatment and 95% of those taking medication having such low levels of virus in their bodies that they can't infect someone through sex. 'The reason that we [were] able to reach half a million within a short space of time, was because of weekly check-in meetings with provinces, where reports that come from the ground are verified in the presence of all provincial colleagues before they are regarded as final figures for reporting,' the minister said. But simply counting better isn't the same as doing better, and critics called the reported progress 'inconceivable'. Why? For the last few years, the number of people with HIV who have gone on treatment has crept up very slowly, so much so that the gap to 95% has remained more or less the same for about five years. (At the moment just more than 80% of people diagnosed with HIV are on treatment.)* Moreover, that was while treatment programmes had funding, and US-backed money for HIV projects was in place. So now, at a time of funding shortfalls, the closure of programmes and the government scrambling to plug the holes, could nearly half of the number of people who need to get treatment really have been added in just 10 weeks? We dive into the data to get a sense of what the numbers really mean. Mind the gap In 2021, South Africa was about 1.2 million people short of its 95% treatment goal; by 2025 the shortfall will likely be 990,000. That means that the gap – that is, the difference between where the country actually is and where it wants to be when it comes to HIV treatment – has closed by about 210,000. So there's been progress, but it's been slow: in total, only about 700,000 more people are on HIV medication today than five years ago. 'Getting that last 1 million or so people on treatment is not simple,' says Kate Rees, public health specialist at the Anova Health Institute. Part of the reason for this, she says, is that a large proportion of the group needed to close the gap are people who have in fact been on antiretrovirals before, but have since stopped. Sometimes people miss an appointment to get a refill of their medicine because they can't afford to take time off work to go to the clinic ,or they might have moved to another province or district and so they don't go back to the facility where they first got their prescription, she explains. The longer the interruption lasts, the more hesitant people are to go back, she says, because they dread being treated poorly or getting 'kicked to the back of the queue' for having missed an appointment, with people such as sex workers, trans folk or men who have sex with men especially facing judgement. 'The health service expects people to be very rigid with their appointments, but life just is not like that,' Rees says Slow progress To get a sense of the progress towards meeting the UN's second target in its 95-95-95 cascade, it's best to look at the difference in the total number of people on HIV treatment from year to year, says Leigh Johnson, one of the lead developers of the Thembisa model, which is used to report South Africa's official statistics to UNAids. Although the number of people on medication is increasing, the number grows less and less each year. For example, in 2020, about 291,000 more people were on treatment than in 2019. By 2021, though, the number had grown only by about 225,000. Current forecasts from the model are that the total number of people on treatment will grow by only around 160,000 this year. But that's based on programmes running as they have up to now — and with recent upsets because of US funding cuts, it may be an unreasonable assumption, Johnson says. Part of the reason for the small net gain every year is that although many people sign up for medication in a year, many also stop coming back to get their scripts refilled. Of those who drop out of treatment, some might choose to restart within a couple of months again, while others may pause their treatment for more than a year. In 2023, for example, roughly 793,500 people who had been on treatment before weren't any longer, but about 728,000 who received medication were restarters, Thembisa numbers show. So even though some people who stop taking their medication might not restart – or restart quickly –the total number who are on treatment still grows; it's just slow-going. This means getting a handle on how close to – or far from – the 95% treatment mark South Africa is, is more dynamic than simple addition. Stops, starts and restarts 'There will always be people who interrupt their treatment,' says Rees. 'It's not possible to keep everyone perfectly in the system all the time — that's life.' But what's important, she says, is to make those pauses as short as possible by helping people to get back on medication quickly and easily – without judgement. Gesine Meyer-Rath agrees. She's a health economist at HE2RO, a health economics research group at the University of the Witwatersrand, and focuses on how the government can get the most bang for its buck in its HIV programme. Data in the Thembisa model shows that over the years, the number of people starting medication for the first time – in other words, those who have never been on treatment before – has shrunk, but at the same time counts of restarters have grown. Her group's analyses have shown that honing in on keeping people on HIV treatment is the best way to go – especially now that funding is shrinking – and that 'we can close the 1.1 million gap through improved retention alone'. But to plan sensibly, she explains, policymakers should know how many people are first-time starters, how many pause treatment but then restart, and how many stop and don't come back at all. 'The more detail programme planners have in the data, the better,' she says. 'The [government's] Close the Gap campaign has a lot of good ideas, but having the right numbers of where the gap is that we want to close is crucial, as is keeping these numbers accurate as we progress.' This is exactly where things can become tricky in future if the holes left by the US funding cuts aren't plugged. Because of the US aid withdrawal, about 40% of South Africa's HIV data capturers will likely have lost their jobs by September, Bhekisisa reported last month, and this means the information needed to shape where money has to be spent to make real progress in ending Aids as a public health threat over the next five years simply might not be available. 'The less data we have, the more we're flying blind, which leaves space for bickering over the data that is still there,' says Meyer-Rath. DM
