Zimbabwe has 8,000 doses of injectable pre-exposure prophylaxis drug, cabotegravir, for use in the ongoing pilot programme to establish its efficacy in preventing HIV as the country pulls all the stops to completely eradicate all new infections of the virus by 2030.
Already infection rates have been falling sharply with a very large majority of the HIV infected now with highly suppressed viral loads as they continue their anti-retrovirus medication, and so are no longer infectious, and with the uninfected population fully knowledgeable about the measures they need to take to stay free of infection.
Also known as CAB-LA (cabotegravir long-acting), the new drug is an ARV that is designed to suppress infection by HIV as it occurs and is for those who are negative but are at high risk of being infected by the virus. It is one of the pre-exposure prophylaxis products undergoing demonstrations to see their efficacy in HIV prevention at one of the 15 demonstration sites that have been set up by the Ministry of Health and Child Care across the country.
