New antiretroviral drug to fight HIV, Aids
A new antiretroviral HIV
and Aids drug is expected to be rolled out between September and October of
this year.
According to Wits University's Reproductive Health and HIV Institute's (RHI) the drug Dolutegravi suppresses the virus quicker.
RHI researcher Michelle Moorhouse says the drug has been around for many years and has been used in more affluent countries.
At the moment South Africa is using an antiretroviral called Efavirenz, which will be replaced with Dolutegravi, which the RHI believes has more benefits.
"Dolutegravi has a very high barrier to resistance, what is mean when we have HIV, it is a virus that is able to mutate so that the drugs don't work anymore. With Dolutegravi it is really hard for the virus to be resistance to it that is a great benefit to us since we are starting to see resistance to develop some of the antiretroviral drugs," says Moorhouse.
Listen to more benefits of Dolutegravi below:
Moorhouse says advanced studies for the drug were done in Yeoville with 1053 people taking part in the program.
Due to the demographics of Yoeville, Moorhouse believes it was a great location to test the drug.
"In our study, we only have 60 people who were South African, 30% Zimbabwean and 10% from the rest of Africa.”
Moorhouse says a rollout training program has started in the country for health officials to minster the drug.
She predicts Dolutegravi will be available in clinics and hospital between September or October, which will be replacing Efavirenz.
Listen below: