LEN can stop HIV. But first people need to understand it
A researcher discusses the public health challenge of introducing lenacapavir (LEN), a long-acting HIV prevention injection, in Zambia. The article highlights a significant knowledge gap regarding the drug's purpose, as many mistake it for a cure rather than a preventative measure.
Why it matters
Effective public health communication is essential to ensure that new medical breakthroughs are used correctly to curb the spread of HIV.
The last person I expected to catch me off guard that summer’s evening was my 52-year-old aunt. We were roasting fresh maize around a fire in Chisamba, a rural farming town about 100km from Lusaka.
“Is the injection which cures HIV available in Zambia?” she asked.
It was December 2025, about a decade after my aunt had been diagnosed with HIV. I came home for Christmas from South Africa where I was a postdoctoral researcher at the South African Medical Research Council.
In late November that year, Zambia had become one of the first two countries (the other country was Eswatini) to receive the first (albeit small) shipments of lenacapavir (LEN) , the once-every-six-month HIV prevention injection , which South Africa also started to roll out in June this year .
My aunt had a complete misconception of what LEN could — and couldn’t — do.
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