South Africa to introduce vaginal rings to fight HIV scourge

With the assistance of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, three important organizations involved in preventing and combating HIV in South Africa—the AIDS Foundation of South Africa, Beyond Zero, and Networking HIV & AIDS Community of Southern Africa—have placed an initial order of 16,000 Dapivirine Vaginal Rings for HIV prevention.

This was revealed by the Global Fund on Friday in a news release.

A silicone ring called the pre-exposure prophylaxis ring is put into the vagina once a month to provide long-lasting, topical, and localized HIV protection.

The DVR is the only PrEP ring for HIV prevention that has received regulatory agency approval.

According to the Global Fund, the availability of the PrEP ring in South Africa will provide women more options besides oral PrEP, which is frequently inadequate to fulfill the individual demands of all those who wish to take it.

The group acknowledged that some persons might decide against using oral PrEP because they have trouble adhering to a regimen or would rather utilize a more covert method.

The HIV preventive Choice Manifesto for Women and Girls in Africa, which was issued earlier this month, calls for increased HIV preventive alternatives, including the PrEP ring.

Women’s health advocates have long argued for the need of a covert product that only women can use, according to Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund. The statement continued, “We are certain that this new PrEP ring can have a revolutionary influence on HIV prevention, and for this reason we hope that many more nations will follow South Africa’s decision.

The DVR was provisionally recommended by the World Health Organization in January 2021 as a new HIV prevention option for women who have a high risk of contracting the virus as part of a combination prevention strategy.

So far, Botswana, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe have approved the DVR, and other African countries have regulatory submissions under review.

“We need to give women more control over their health and bodies,” said the CEO of the AIDS Foundation of South Africa, Ntombenhle Mkhize. “Women need access to a range of safe and effective options to choose from, including the dapivirine ring, so they can decide to use what works best for them, at different times of their lives.”

The Global Fund added that the use of condoms as a form of HIV prevention is often controlled by male partners. Because women can insert the PrEP ring themselves, it offers them a method of HIV prevention that is private and belongs to them.

It said, “The ring also eliminates the need to carry pills, which may pose challenges for privacy, and doesn’t require daily pill-taking, which some find difficult.

“Some women may prefer the ring to taking a daily PrEP pill for lots of reasons,” said the Acting Chief Director for HIV/AIDS at the National Department of Health in South Africa, Dr. Thato Chidarikire. “It can be hard to remember to take a pill every day, and some women feel unable to do so due to HIV-related stigma or because their partners or family members don’t want them to. PrEP injections are also becoming available, but these must be done at a clinic every other month, whereas women can get a supply of rings, then use them at home.”

Significant investments made by the Global Fund in South Africa are intended to build on hard-won victories in the fight against HIV and tuberculosis and to support ongoing initiatives to continue to slant the incidence and mortality curves for both illnesses.

With roughly eight million people carrying the virus, South Africa has the world’s worst HIV epidemic. Despite a decline in new infections, the nation continued to record the highest number of new HIV infections worldwide (more than 160,000) in 2022.

With 94% of persons living with HIV knowing their status in 2022, South Africa has made progress in locating and diagnosing HIV.

According to the report, since the middle of the 2000s, fewer individuals had died from AIDS-related causes and 75% of those with HIV were receiving antiretroviral therapy.