The World Health Organization has suggested global release of lenacapavir, a twice-yearly injectable medication, as a powerful HIV infection-fighting medication. The historic suggestion was made at the 13th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science in Kigali, Rwanda.
Compared to daily oral tablets that many who are at risk for HIV cannot use due to stigma, access issues, or lifestyle reasons, lenacapavir is a quiet and elegant option. Only two injections per year are required, and it is almost as effective as an HIV vaccine, offering a life-changing treatment for those at risk. The same authorities within the WHO always characterize this combination as a breakthrough for the international efforts in combating new HIV infections and fighting AIDS.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus emphasized the importance of the progress, arguing that as long as it is out of sight, as long as a winning vaccine is being held aloft and tantalizingly out of reach, lenacapavir is the available best prevention. Supported by strong clinical trial evidence and regulator approval, the medication will go a great distance in preventing flatlining HIV prevention.
The approval of lenacapavir follows frightening statistics. 1.3 million new HIV infections alone were recorded globally in 2024, the overwhelming majority in groups such as sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender persons, injecting drug users, detainees and prisoners, and youth. WHO will expand the breadth of prevention as well as their availability to the highest-at-risk groups.
In spite of low rates of access to lenacapavir outside clinical trials, WHO is already calling on countries and partners to begin implementing the drug into national-level HIV prevention programs, including mobilizing funding, setting up supply chains, and observing firsthand what is happening in the sense that the drug is being used and working effectively in the real world beyond controlled environments.
After WHO’s approval of lenacapavir, WHO further advises screening for syphilis and HIV while consulting suspected patients of mpox (monkeypox) in an attempt to unplug public health action.
WHO has also released a step-by-step operational framework to facilitate low-budget countries to continue offering HIV services. It is risk assessment-guided, service continuity-focused, and seeks to leverage available limited resources in order to prevent reversals of the achievements in the HIV response.
In the face of overwhelming expansion of treatment access—31.6 million were on antiretroviral therapy as of 2024—HIV remains a monolith public health challenge. 40.8 million people were living with HIV, 65 percent of whom were in Africa’s sub-Saharan region, as of December 2024. 630,000 AIDS-related deaths occurred worldwide in the same period.
With evidence-based leadership and horizons such as lenacapavir, WHO is confident that the world possesses all the potential to make HIV a relic of history. Governments, health systems, and societies need now only bold, fair action and leadership to bring it about.
