SA and Zambia’s HIV shot dilemma: Demand versus supply

Early data shows South Africans and Zambians have a big appetite for the twice-yearly HIV prevention injection.

But clinics don’t yet have enough doses for everyone who wants it.

Staying quiet could allow rumours to spread.

Promoting LEN too widely, though, could send people to clinics that have run out.

Zambia is taking information to communities near clinics that stock LEN.

South Africa says it will tell people honestly where injections are available.

It’s a balancing act: how do you persuade people to want a new medicine when there isn’t enough of it to go around? In today’s newsletter , Ida Jooste explains that for lenacapavir to have impact, it needs demand.

But supply is scarce.

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How do you persuade people to want a new medicine when there isn’t enough of it to go around? That’s the problem facing the first countries rolling out lenacapavir LEN) , a six-monthly HIV prevention injection.

South Africa started its roll-out at around one in 10 government clinics on 5 June .

LEN has sparked an excitement about HIV prevention that Mitchell Warren , executive director of the HIV advocacy organisation Avac , says he hasn’t seen in three decades.

Some experts say it’s easy to understand why.

The injection offers close to complete protection against HIV and only needs to be taken twice a year .