The World Health Organisation says it has supported nine countries to begin rolling out lenacapavir, a long-acting HIV prevention medicine, targeting people at high risk of infection across several African nations.

This was disclosed on Thursday by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, during an online media briefing on global health priorities, including HIV prevention, advances in obesity treatment, and progress toward eliminating cervical cancer.

Mr Tedros said a new medicine approved in 2025 for HIV prevention, Lenacapavir, represented the most significant development in combating HIV since the first antiretroviral treatments were approved nearly 40 years ago.

He said that HIV remained one of the defining public health challenges of the past half-century, but it had also become one of the world’s most notable successes in disease control efforts.

According to him, HIV, once considered a death sentence, can now be controlled with safe and effective medication, allowing millions of people living with the virus to live longer, healthier lives worldwide.

Mr Tedros said that as treatment improved and access expanded, annual AIDS-related deaths globally had dropped dramatically, declining by about 70 per cent over the past 20 years.

He added that medicines originally designed to treat HIV infection were increasingly used as preventive tools, protecting people at substantial risk of contracting the virus before exposure occurred.

The WHO chief reiterated that the approval of lenacapavir for HIV prevention in 2025 marked a historic milestone in global efforts to curb transmission and accelerate progress toward ending the epidemic.

He explained that lenacapavir was not a vaccine but functioned as a long-acting antiretroviral drug administered once every six months to people who were HIV-negative but vulnerable to infection.

According to him, clinical trials have shown the medicine can prevent almost all cases of HIV among individuals at risk, making it one of the most promising prevention tools available.

Mr Tedros said WHO issued official guidelines on the use of lenacapavir in July 2025 and later granted prequalification in October, enabling global health donors to procure and distribute the medicine.

He said that it was the first time the WHO developed treatment guidelines and product prequalification simultaneously rather than sequentially, accelerating equitable access to a major public health innovation.

Mr Tedros said South Africa became the first African country to approve lenacapavir in October 2025 and only the third country globally to authorise the medicine for HIV prevention.

He added that South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa announced during his 2025 State of the Nation address that the country planned a large-scale rollout of the prevention drug.

(NAN)