South Africa has taken a major step forward in the fight against HIV, but not without setbacks. The
country’s first batch of the groundbreaking twice-a-year HIV prevention injection, lenacapavir, has finally landed at OR Tambo International Airport — weeks behind schedule and with fewer doses than expected. Backed by funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and approved by South African Health Products Regulatory Authority, this new form of PrEP could dramatically reduce new infections. But delays in shipment, regulatory hurdles, and post-import testing now mean South Africans will have to wait even longer for a rollout that was meant to begin this month. Tonight, we unpack what this delay means for a country still battling one of the world’s largest HIV epidemics — and whether this scientific breakthrough can still change the course of history.