Graduating from Pepfar: Oral PrEP a Key Tool
The Namibian HIV Clinicians Society is raising concerns about the upcoming withdrawal of US Pepfar funding for HIV prevention programs. The article highlights the need for a new national strategy to maintain access to oral PrEP and address the high costs of newer injectable treatments.
Why it matters
The loss of international funding threatens to reverse progress in HIV prevention and epidemic control in southern Africa.
As the Namibian HIV Clinicians Society, we would like to comment on the envisaged withdrawal of the United States’ President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar) by the end of 2027. This impacts the goal of ending the HIV epidemic, as well as one of our main tools, known as Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP).
The announcement in 2024 that an injectable form of PrEP, Lenacapavir, had a 100% efficacy in preventing women from acquiring HIV brought hope that we could finally halt the epidemic in our southern African context. It was US government funding, through Pepfar, that sought to expand access to this drug across low and middle income countries over the course of the last two years. Namibia has not yet seen a wide roll out of this intervention, although the Medicines Regulatory Council approved it in January of this year.
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