Women will benefit from a new HIV prevention tool. This is a vaginal ring that delivers antiretroviral medication. This device may be preferred to other prevention treatments which consist of swallowing a pill every day or receiving an injection every month. This is a major step forward for South Africa, which has nearly 8 million people living with HIV. Three South African organizations have ordered 16,000 of these vaginal rings touted as revolutionary.
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With our correspondent in Johannesburg, Roman Song
A silicone ring, flexible, discreet, which is inserted into the vagina and which is forgotten for a month, without anyone knowing. It is also more easily accepted by the body since it gradually releases dapivirine, an antiretroviral drug.
This is an alternative available to women for whom taking the pill daily would be difficult. This ring is inspired by contraceptive rings that already exist. The World Health Organization has recommended it since 2021 and specifies that research is underway to manufacture a version with dual contraceptive and antiretroviral effects.
All new solutions are good to take in South Africa, the country most affected by HIV with 160,000 new infections in 2022. The dapivirine ring could soon appear elsewhere on the continent since it has already been approved in Rwanda , in Kenya, in Botswana, in Uganda in Zambia in Zimbabwe.