00:00South Africa has become the first African country and only the third nation worldwide
00:06to register a new twice yearly HIV prevention jab.
00:10It's believed the Lene Kapovia injection could end HIV AIDS in the country within 14 to 18 years
00:16if enough people were able to take it.
00:19The rapid approval of the Lene jab by the South African medicines regulator
00:23opens the way for the health department to begin providing citizens with the shot.
00:27It says it could start rolling out access from as early as February next year.
00:32However, initial Lene doses are being paid for with a $30 million grant by the Global Fund to Fight HIV, TB and Malaria,
00:39enough for some 450,000 people to be phased in over two years.
00:45This is nowhere near the 1 to 2 million doses per year South Africa would need to end AIDS within 18 years.
00:51The revolutionary jab is almost full protection for HIV-negative people
00:56who weigh 35 kilograms or more against getting the virus through sex.
01:01Some 8 million South Africans live with HIV
01:03and every week around 1,000 adolescent girls and young women become newly infected.
Comments