OPINION: Gauteng’s Lenacapavir story is bigger than a new injection

By Faith Mazibuko When we introduced Lenacapavir in Gauteng in June, we knew we were introducing something new.

However, we did not fully comprehend on how quickly our communities would respond.

Within weeks, thousands of people visited our identified facilities to access this new HIV prevention option.

By the end of July, 17 937 eligible clients had already been initiated on Lenacapavir.

Gauteng has since received an additional 28 593 initiation packs, bringing the total received to 57 231.

The province has been allocated enough stock to initiate 114 160 eligible clients between June 2026 and March 2027.

For me, this is more than a statistic.

It conveys an important message about people of Gauteng.

They are eager to protect themselves against HIV, and willing to adapt and use new prevention options when such are made available.

There has been some public discussion about facilities that temporarily ran out of Lenacapavir, which intervention was quickly sort to make it available to those who couldn’t access during the said shortage period.

We acknowledge the frustration experienced by clients who could not immediately access the service.

However, we should also look at what caused these shortages.

In some facilities, demand was higher than our initial projections.

That is not a story of people being turned away from healthcare.