IN a bid to increase adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) in Zimbabwe, the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) said it welcomes obtaining studies to advance prevention therapy through long term injectable Pre-Exposure prophylaxes medications.
By Staff Reporter
This follows the approval of Apretude (cabotegravir extended-release injectable suspension) in 2021 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This will be taken in at-risk adults and adolescents weighing at least 35 kilograms (77 pounds) for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to reduce the risk of sexually acquired HIV.
However, in Zimbabwe, current National HIV Guidelines include a single daily oral PrEP pill containing 300mg tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) as part of HIV Prevention intervention. It can be used as a fixed-dose combination with 200mg Emtricitabine (FTC) or 300mg Lamivudine (3TC).
Speaking during an editors and station mangers Media and station mangers workshop in Mazowe, Ministry of health and Child Care (MoHCC) Director AIDS and Tuberculosis (TB) Unit, Dr Owen Mugurungi said the coming of the injectable PrEP would do away with drug induced fatigue and increase prevention outcomes.
Currently we use what we call daily Oral PrEP. These are tablets that are taken every day. You know the challenge of taking tablets every day. At times you forget and at times you may take them at different times yet you are supposed to be taking the drugs around the same time every day.
“To lessen that burden, the Pharmaceutical industry has now developed some medicines that can be given as an injection and will work over a longer period. The issue is that these things are still in trail phase of which if offered the opportunity, we are ready to try it here,” said Dr Mugurungi.
Zimbabwe commenced rollout of oral PrEP program in 2016 in bid to widen HIV prevention options for people that are at high HIV infection risk.
He added since the drug is still in its trial phases, there were no timelines as yet as to when Zimbabwe would try it out. Zimbabwe has over the years been leading in some HIV prevention studies which include the Vaginal Ring or Dapivirine ring whose use has already been approved by the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ).
“We are yet to get there and we don’t know when we can say we can take this up here in Zimbabwe. I am sure a few years ago you heard about the ring that will be used to prevent HIV infections in women and girls. We are yet to get there again in terms of the ring. Research moves fast but implementation always takes a lot of time because those who would have developed the products will start negotiating for the price etc.”
Meanwhile, the envisaged roll-out of the Vaginal ring or Dapivirine ring in Sub-Saharan Africa has currently been put on hold as two of the major funding partners, the USAID and PEPFAR have indicated that they won’t be paying for the rollout of the ring but will now only support implementation studies.
