Year: 2025

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Emotion Plays a Major Role in Psychosis Onset and Persistence

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Photo by Alex Green on Pexels

New research from King’s College London has highlighted the important role that emotions play in the onset and persistence of psychosis.

The research, published in Early Intervention in Psychiatry, advocates for the development of emotion-focused interventions that seek to prevent a person’s relapse in their health as well as maintain their recovery.

Psychosis is a symptom of mental illness typified by hallucinations, delusional thoughts and disorganised thinking. While previous research has implicated emotion in the onset and continuation of psychosis, there has not yet been a universally acknowledged theory to account for the influence that emotions can have on it.

Researchers in this study conducted a systematic review of 78 studies comparing the experiences of healthy controls with individuals at Clinical High Risk (CHR), a diagnosis of schizophrenia (SZ), and those experiencing their First Episode of Psychosis (FEP). Researchers wanted to better understand both the role of emotions, as well as emotional coping strategies, in their experiences.

This systematic review found that SZ and CHR individuals demonstrated significant impairments in their emotional awareness, their understanding of self and others, and their ability to regulate their emotions when compared to healthy controls. They also demonstrated a heightened emotional reactivity.

The researchers, from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s, found that individuals with schizophrenia reported high levels of “Negative Affect” – a reduction or absence of normal emotional expression – which was a strong predictor of paranoia.

“Experiencing emotions is a natural part of everyday life. However, our study highlights that people with psychosis experience emotions with more intensity, which can significantly contribute to the emergence and maintenance of their psychosis symptoms. Therefore, psychological interventions that explicitly target emotions and emotional coping in psychosis could help prevent relapse and maintain recovery.”

Dr Anna Georgiades, a Lecturer in Early Intervention in Psychosis at King’s IoPPN and the study’s senior author

The researchers also wanted to explore how individuals at CHR and those with schizophrenia employed coping mechanisms to manage emotional situations. They found that, while the healthy controls were more likely to adopt “Adaptive Coping Strategies”, in which individuals seek to manage stress and difficult situations in healthy and constructive ways, people with psychosis were more likely to employ maladaptive techniques that were associated with an increase in their symptoms and increased depression.

Dr Anna Georgiades, a Lecturer in Early Intervention in Psychosis at King’s IoPPN and the study’s senior author said,  “There are two ways in which a person might manage an emotionally stressful situation; either by removing the stressor, or by seeking to manage the stress that is being caused.

“From the studies we reviewed, we consistently found that people with psychosis used more unhelpful emotional coping such as avoidance and suppression rather than helpful emotional coping such as problem solving or changing the way they think about the situation.

“By reducing unhelpful emotional coping and by increasing more helpful emotional coping (ie, by increasing active problem solving and the skill in changing one’s view of a situation), we could prevent relapse and maintain recovery. This therefore has important implications for the psychological treatment of psychosis.”

Source: King’s College London

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Drug Combo Cuts Risk of Death in Advanced Prostate Cancer by 40%

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Cedars-Sinai Led Clinical trial showed combo treatment reduced deaths in patients with an aggressive form of the disease

Credit: Darryl Leja National Human Genome Research Institute National Institutes Of Health

Men whose prostate cancer returns after surgery or radiation therapy may now benefit from a new drug combination shown in clinical trials to cut the risk of death by more than 40%.

The combination therapy, which adds the drug enzalutamide to commonly prescribed hormone therapy, reduced deaths in patients with recurrent prostate cancer after surgery or radiation for whom other treatments are no longer an option. The trial results were published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) with simultaneous presentation during the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress (ESMO) Oct. 19 in Berlin.

“After initial treatment, some patients see their prostate cancer come back in an aggressive way and are at risk for their disease to spread quickly,” said Stephen Freedland, MD, director of the Center for Integrated Research in Cancer and Lifestyle at Cedars-Sinai Cancer and co-principal investigator of the study. “Hormone therapy, which is what we’ve been offering patients for 30 years, has not improved survival and neither has anything else. That makes these findings a real game changer.”

The trial included more than 1000 patients from 244 sites in 17 countries. All the patients were diagnosed with what is known as high-risk biochemically recurrent prostate cancer. Following the patients’ surgery or radiation therapy, the levels of prostate specific antigen, or PSA, in their blood had risen rapidly. PSA is a protein used to detect prostate cancer, and a rapid rise in PSA levels after treatment indicates a patient’s cancer is likely to return and metastasise, often to the bones or spine.

“We know these patients are at high risk of developing metastatic disease and dying of their cancer unless we offer a meaningful treatment option,” said Freedland, professor of Urology and the Warschaw, Robertson, Law Families Chair in Prostate Cancer.

Patients were randomly selected to receive standard hormone therapy alone, enzalutamide alone, or a combination of the two. After eight years, the risk of death was 40.3% lower in the combination group than in the other two groups, Freedland said.

“This clinical trial, one of many that Cedars-Sinai Cancer has offered to its patients, is an example of the translational work being done by our physician-scientists,” said Robert Figlin, MD, interim director of Cedars-Sinai Cancer. “The result will be improved treatment and better outcomes for patients everywhere.”

Freedland noted that, based on previous results published by the team, enzalutamide is approved by the Food and Drug Administration and listed in National Comprehensive Cancer Network treatment guidelines. These latest results, he said, are likely to strengthen the network’s recommendation and solidify this drug combination as the standard of care for patients with high-risk biochemically recurrent prostate cancer.

“These important findings identify a treatment that prolongs survival in men with aggressive prostate cancer,” said Hyung Kim, MD, a urologic oncologist and chair of the Department of Urology at Cedars-Sinai.  “The latest analysis complements previous studies that found enzalutamide significantly improved survival in other prostate cancer settings, and will change how we take care of our patients.”

Source: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

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Opinion Piece: The Lifetime Toll of Medical Aid Shortfalls

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Photo by Alex Green on Unsplash

By Tony Singleton, CEO at Turnberry Management Risk Solutions

21 October 2025

You plan for retirement, save for your child’s education, and try to build a financial cushion, but what happens when medical co-payments chip away at those plans, year after year? It starts small: a R5,000 co-payment for a scope. Then a few months later, a R12,000 shortfall for a hospital admission. Fast forward five years, and you’ve spent tens of thousands on out-of-pocket medical costs that your medical aid didn’t fully cover.

Medical aids cannot keep pace with the rate of medical inflation while still maintaining affordable premiums, so co-payments grow each year, more sub-limits are introduced, and specialist fees continue to outpace medical aid rates. This means more and more South Africans are finding themselves forced to draw from their retirement funds or take on debt to cover medical aid shortfalls. Medical aid alone is no longer enough to protect your financial future – gap cover has become essential.

How medical expense shortfalls silently accumulate

Medical scheme members, especially those on higher-end plans, often assume they are covered for any medical eventuality – until it is time to actually claim for a significant medical event. Even comprehensive plans can fall short when it comes to specialist charges, hospital procedures, or newer, high-tech treatments. Many specialists charge as much as five or six times the scheme rate, and certain procedures have limits to what medical aid will pay or require an up-front co-payment. While your medical aid might pay a portion, the remainder becomes your responsibility.

This can become a compounding problem. What starts as a few isolated bills adds up. Over time, shortfalls from surgeries, diagnostics, scopes, chronic illness treatment, or specialist consultations can add up to hundreds of thousands of Rands. For example, one Turnberry client managing spinal conditions, lupus, and gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GERD) claimed R478,000 across 27 incidents in only five years. Another has claimed R450,000 across 54 incidents related to lung disease and spinal conditions, and a third, with multiple chronic issues, has received over R448,000 in gap cover payments over the same period. As the years go by, these amounts continue to add up, and this is becoming an increasingly typical pattern. Many families are forced to pause investments, take out loans, or remove money from their retirement annuities to keep up with these uncovered and unanticipated expenses.

Gap cover has become essential

Gap cover was created precisely to tackle these medical expense shortfalls, with an affordable policy that sits alongside medical aid and offers cover for medical expense shortfalls, co-payments, sub-limit cover, oncology shortfalls, prosthesis costs, and even casualty visits. Where medical aid benefits have tightened to control premiums, gap cover has expanded to fill the void.

Many South Africans still believe gap cover is a nice-to-have or something that is only necessary later in life. The reality, though, is that shortfalls affect people no matter what age they are, from broken bones in their 20s to maternity bills in their 30s or chronic conditions emerging in their 40s and beyond. Joining early also makes a difference, as you are covered from the start and your premiums will remain lower than someone beginning their cover at 65, when age-based premium increases and health exclusions may apply. Gap cover is not just for major surgeries or cancer treatments; it is valuable for more routine procedures as well as accidents and emergencies. And its value increases over time, especially if you remain continuously covered and avoid reintroducing waiting periods.

A long-term strategy, not a short-term fix

By staying on gap cover year after year, members build a stable financial buffer against the cumulative effect of medical costs. We’ve seen clients rely on gap cover for decades of health events, not just one-off emergencies, and the value of continuous cover is evident in our lifetime claims figures. Gap cover is no longer a luxury, it is an essential tool for building long-term financial resilience. Without it, medical aid shortfalls can easily undo years of careful financial planning. Talk to your broker about finding the best gap cover solution to fit your needs.

About Turnberry Management Risk Solutions

Founded in 2001, Turnberry is a registered financial services provider (FSP no. 36571) that specialises in Accident and Health Insurance, Travel Insurance, and Funeral Cover.

With extensive experience across healthcare and insurance industries in South Africa, Turnberry offers unsurpassed service to Brokers and clients. Turnberry’s gap cover products are available to clients on all medical aid schemes, as they are independently provided and are therefore transferable in the event of a change in the client’s medical aid scheme.

Turnberry is well represented nationally, with its Head Office based in Bedfordview, Johannesburg with Business Development Managers in Cape Town and Durban. The Turnberry Team’s focus on outstanding client service comes from having extensive knowledge and experience in the financial services sector and is underwritten by Lombard Insurance Company Limited. Lombard Insurance Company Limited is an Authorised Financial Services Provider (FSP 1596) and Insurer conducting non-life insurance business.

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Craters on Surface of Melanoma Cells Serve as Sites for Tumour Killing

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Studying these craters could better assess immunotherapy’s success in treating solid tumours

3D structure of a melanoma cell derived by ion abrasion scanning electron microscopy. Credit: Sriram Subramaniam/ National Cancer Institute

Like the surface of the moon, new research published today in Cell finds the existence of craters on the surface of melanoma cells that serve as immune hubs, becoming major sites for tumour killing. These craters could serve as good markers for immunotherapy success.

This research provides insight into a key function of immune check-point blockade (ICB) cancer therapy that was previously unknown. ICB works by re-activating CD8+ T cells against tumours which shrinks and eventually kills the cancer cells. However, what facilitates local tumour killing by the infiltrating CD8+ T cells has remained a mystery.

Using a zebrafish model, researchers were able to monitor the infiltrating CD8+ T cells for up to 24 hours as they moved through the 3D architecture of endogenous melanoma tumours. Zebrafish provide the only tumour model where continuous live imaging over a 24 hour time period is feasible.  

“We found that rather than patrolling the entire tumour surface, CD8+ T cells aggregated in pockets on the melanoma border, forming prolonged interactions with melanoma cells,” says Leonard Zon, MD, Director of the Stem Cell Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and lead investigator of the study. “We termed these pockets Cancer Regions of Antigen presentation and T cell Engagement and Retention (CRATERs) and saw that, following immune stimulation, the CRATERs expanded and facilitated an effective immune response against the tumour.”

Zon, first author Aya Ludin, and the team also discovered CRATERs in human melanoma samples. Moreover, they saw similar structures in human lung cancer, indicating that CRATERs are likely not limited to melanoma and may form in other solid tumours.

To date, efficacy of therapeutic response to ICB therapy has been assessed mainly by estimating the degree of tumour necrosis and fibrosis. Indicators of CD8+ T cells infiltration has been associated with patient survival and treatment outcome, but direct evidence of effective immune cell-tumour cell interaction has been missing.

“Pending thorough clinical verification and taken together with other measurements, CRATERs may serve to more accurately assess the efficacy of an ongoing treatment and improve treatment outcomes,” said Zon.

The research team is now planning a prospective clinical trial to test if CRATERs are the best marker of ICB success.

Source: Boston Children’s Hospital via EurekAlert!

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Is It Time for the Gloves to Come off?

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The indiscriminate use of non-sterile gloves in hospitals and clinics could be doing more harm than good, new research has found.

Photo by Anton on Unsplash

The indiscriminate use of non-sterile gloves in hospitals and clinics is significantly adding to environmental pollution, with little evidence to prove that there are substantial benefits.

New research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) has highlighted the lack of evidenced-based guidelines in the use of non-sterile gloves in healthcare nursing and other medical fields, which could be impacting patient outcomes, healthcare costs, and environmental sustainability in healthcare.

Lead author Dr Natasya Raja Azlan noted while non-sterile gloves are necessary when there is a risk of touching body fluids that could carry viruses or bacteria or hazardous medications, there is no evidence to support the use of gloves for activities like moving patients, feeding, or basic washing or preparing many medications.

In fact, unnecessary glove use can be harmful. Staff are less likely to wash their hands, even though handwashing remains the best way to stop infections spreading. The result can be increased spread of harmful disease between vulnerable patients as well as healthcare staff.

Dr Raja Azlan

Co-author Dr Lesley Andrew added that the abundant use of non-sterile gloves was also contributing to the cost of healthcare, pointing out that one New South Wales hospital’s decision to cut-back on the use of these gloves had saved $155 000 in a single year and reduced medical waste by 8 tonnes.

“The disposal of healthcare products represents 7% of Australia’s national total carbon emissions, only slightly less than the 10% attributed to all road vehicles. Manufacturing these gloves consumes fossil fuels, water, and energy, while their disposal if through incineration can degrade air quality and release harmful chemicals. If sent to landfill, they may leach microparticles and heavy metals into soil and water systems, posing risks to both human health and the environment,” she added.

Dr Raja Azlan noted that, despite non-sterile glove use being a common and routinely taught practice during intravenous antimicrobial preparation and administration, there are currently no evidence-based guidelines or protocols in place to support or standardise this aspect of nursing care.

This lack of evidence-based protocols has resulted in co-author Dr Carol Crevacore calling for a review into this practice.

Source: Edith Cowan University

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Tweeting at Night Linked with Worse Mental Wellbeing, New Study Finds

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Posting on X (previously known as Twitter) throughout the night is associated with worse mental wellbeing, according to a new study from the University of Bristol published in Scientific Reports.

Tweeting throughout the night explained almost 2% of variation in participants’ mental wellbeing, which is comparable to activities like binge drinking and smoking marijuana (as measured in previous studies).

Researchers suggested that actively using Twitter during the night could both disrupt and delay sleep, which could reduce the quality and quantity of sleep, harming mental wellbeing. Nighttime tweeting showed a weaker relationship with depressive and anxiety symptoms (compared to mental wellbeing), although this became stronger after results were split by age and sex.

Seventy-four per cent of UK adults keep their phone in their bedroom at night, while twenty-six per cent say they would check their phone if they wake up in the night, according to a 2022 YouGov survey.

Regulation and guidance for nighttime social media use

The study’s findings support calls for more regulation and guidance for nighttime use of social media. For example, TikTok, the online video-sharing app, introduced the tool “Wind Down” in March this year which shows meditation videos at night to encourage younger users to stop scrolling.

Researchers say top-down approaches to change the user architecture of apps, like TikTok’s wind-down mode, as well as education campaigns to raise awareness within vulnerable groups, could help improve the safety of social media use.

Daniel Joinson, Doctoral Researcher and lead author of the paper, said: “Whilst social media is often treated like a monolith, its impact on mental health will depend on the exact behaviours the user performs and the experiences they have on these platforms. Our paper highlights the potential harm of a very specific behaviour: nighttime content posting.

“Research like ours could help inform interventions or legislation that aim to deter harmful social media use, whilst enabling beneficial behaviours or experiences. This is made possible by having access to actual social media data, which is essential if we are to build a deeper understanding of the relationship between social media and mental health.”

Novel data collection approaches

The research drew on longitudinal data from 310 adults (aged between 18-60+) in the Children of the 90s study who consented and were eligible to share their Twitter data, with 18,288 tweets included in the data. Participants’ mental health was measured at multiple timepoints using standard questionnaires, including the Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ). Importantly, instead of classifying people as simply depressed or not, mental health was measured on a scale, giving a more detailed picture. Participants’ tweets from within two weeks of these questionnaires were included in the analysis, but all others were not.

Uniquely, the study used data directly from Twitter (with the consent of the participant). This enabled the researchers to collect precise measurements of the time of day participants posted on Twitter.

However, the authors noted that the study participants were all adults, almost entirely white, and were more likely to be female. This data was collected during the COVID-19 pandemic, a unique time for social media usage and mental health patterns.

The research team are now looking to understand more about how the patterns of emotion expression and social interactions relate to mental health and wellbeing.

Source: University of Bristol

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Virtual Antenatal Care Linked to Poorer Pregnancy Outcomes

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Source: Pixabay CC0

Women who receive more virtual antenatal care during their second or third trimesters could experience poorer pregnancy outcomes, including higher risks of preterm birth, Caesarean sections and neonatal intensive care unit admissions, a new study suggests.

Increased virtual antenatal care in later pregnancy was also found to be associated with lower rates of early skin-to-skin contact with the newborn and fewer instances of breastfeeding as the first feed.

Led by King’s College London and published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, the study looked at associations between virtual antenatal care and pregnancy outcomes in more than 34 000 pregnancies from a diverse, South London population, from periods before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Women were split into four groups, according to the proportion of virtual antenatal care appointments received during their pregnancy – low and stable virtual antenatal care throughout pregnancy, high first trimester virtual antenatal care, high second trimester virtual antenatal care, and high third trimester virtual antenatal care.

Pregnancy and birth outcome data were obtained from hospital records via the Early Life Cross-Linkage in Research, Born in South London (eLIXIR-BiSL) platform, funded by the UKRI Medical Research Council (MRC).

Analyses of the data revealed that, compared with those who received a low and stable proportion of virtual antenatal care throughout their pregnancy:

  • Women who received a high proportion of virtual antenatal care in their second trimester experienced more premature births (before 37 weeks), labour inductions, breech presentation, and bleeding after birth; and
  • Women who received a high proportion of virtual antenatal care in their third trimester had more premature births (before 37 weeks), elective or emergency Caesarean sections, and neonatal intensive care unit admissions; as well as lower rates of third- or fourth-degree vaginal tears, early skin-to-skin contact with the newborn and fewer instances of breastfeeding as the first feed.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of virtual antenatal care increased, to limit face-to-face contact and prevent spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. While research has looked at the experiences of women and healthcare providers receiving and delivering virtual care, fewer studies have focused on the impact of virtual antenatal care on pregnancy outcomes.

Our work adds an important perspective to the growing evidence base on virtual antenatal care, suggesting that the timing of its use during pregnancy may influence pregnancy outcomes.

Dr Katie Dalrymple, Lecturer at King’s and first author of the study

The findings build on an earlier study by the team, which found that virtual maternity care during the COVID-19 pandemic was linked to higher NHS costs – with each 1% increase in virtual antenatal care associated with a £7 increase in maternity costs to the NHS.

In addition to the cost implications of virtual care, the findings from the new study suggest that virtual antenatal care could come with increased risks to mother and baby. The authors conclude that careful consideration may be needed to minimise these risks before using virtual antenatal care in future health system shocks or to replace face-to-face care.

Our study findings suggest the need for careful integration of virtual care in maternity services, to minimise potential risks.

Professor Laura Magee, Professor of Women’s Health at King’s and co-senior author of the paper

Source: King’s College London

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First Drug Treatment for Sleep Apnoea Succeeds in Clinical Trial

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Photo by Mert Kahveci on Unsplash

The drug sulthiame reduces the number of breathing pauses and improves sleep quality in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea, according to a European clinical study in which the University of Gothenburg played a significant role. The findings offer hope for a drug-based treatment for people who cannot tolerate CPAP breathing masks.

The study, published in The Lancet, included 298 patients with moderate to severe sleep apnoea. One quarter received a placebo, while the remaining participants were given sulthiame in different doses. The double-blind clinical trial was conducted in four European countries.

A possible breakthrough

The study found that patients receiving the higher doses of the drug had up to 47% fewer breathing interruptions and better oxygenation compared with those given placebo. Sulthiame works by stabilizing the body’s breathing control and increasing respiratory drive, thereby reducing the risk of the upper airway collapsing during sleep. Most side effects were mild and transient.

Jan Hedner, senior professor of pulmonary medicine at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, has played a leading role in the study. 

“We have been working on this treatment strategy for a long time, and the results show that sleep apnoea can indeed be influenced pharmacologically. It feels like a breakthrough, and we now look forward to larger and longer studies to determine whether the effect is sustained over time and whether the treatment is safe for broader patient groups,” says Jan Hedner.

Many struggle with CPAP

Sleep apnoea occurs when the upper airways collapse during sleep, causing repeated breathing pauses, oxygen deprivation, and disrupted sleep. Over time, untreated sleep apnoea increases the risk of high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.

Although the condition is common, there is still no drug that treats the underlying cause. The standard treatment – continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) – is highly effective but difficult for many to tolerate. Up to half of all patients discontinue CPAP within a year, as the mask can feel uncomfortable or disturb sleep.

Sulthiame is an existing medication previously approved for treating a form of childhood epilepsy, and is now being evaluated for sleep apnoea.

Source: University of Gothenburg

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New Research Shows that Cancer Can Damage the Myelin Sheath

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Myelin sheath damage. Credit: Scientific Animations CC4.0

A new study, published in Nature, underscores the importance of investigating interactions between cancer and the nervous system – a field known as cancer neuroscience. The results suggest that targeting the signalling pathways involved can reverse this inflammation and improve treatment responses.

“These findings uncover novel mechanisms by which the immune system and nerves within the tumour microenvironment interact, revealing actionable targets that could transform the way we approach resistance to immunotherapy in patients with cancer,” said co-corresponding author Moran Amit, MD, PhD, professor of Head and Neck Surgery. “This marks a significant advance in our understanding of tumour-neuro-immune dynamics, highlighting the importance of investigating the interplay of cancer and neuroscience in meaningful ways that can directly impact clinical practice.”

Tumours can sometimes infiltrate the space around nerves and nervous system fibres that are in close proximity, a process known as perineural invasion, which leads to poor prognosis and treatment escalation in various cancer types. Yet little is known about how this invasion affects or interacts with the immune system.

The study, co-led by Amit, Neil Gross, MD, professor of Head and Neck Surgery, and Jing Wang, PhD, professor of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, examined the role of perineural invasion and cancer-associated nerve injury in relation to the development of immunotherapy resistance commonly seen in patients with squamous cell carcinoma, melanoma and stomach cancer.

Collaborating with the immunotherapy platform, part of the James P. Allison Institute, the team analysed trial samples using advanced genetic, bioinformatic and spatial techniques. The researchers revealed that cancer cells break down the protective myelin sheaths that cover nerve fibres, and that the injured nerves promote their own healing and regeneration through an inflammatory response.

Unfortunately, this inflammatory response gets caught in a chronic feedback loop as tumors continue to grow, repeatedly damaging nerves which then recruit and exhaust the immune system, ushering in an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment that leads to treatment resistance. The study showed that targeting the cancer-induced nerve injury pathway at different points can reverse this resistance and improve treatment response.

Importantly, the authors point out that this reduced neuronal health is directly associated with perineural invasion and cancer-induced nerve injury, rather than a general cancer-induced effect, highlighting the importance of studying cancer-nerve interactions that can potentially contribute to cancer progression.

As part of MD Anderson’s Cancer Neuroscience Program, researchers are investigating scientific themes – such as neurobiology, tumours of the brain and spine, neurotoxicities and neurobehavioural health – to understand how the nervous system and cancer interact and how this affects patients throughout their cancer journey.

Source: University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

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HIV Prevention Jab Rollout a Great Step Forward, but Ongoing Safe Sex Practices Are Crucial

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Photo by Sergey Mikheev on Unsplash

Avian Bell, CEO of Quantumed South Africa, has welcomed the announcement that South Africa will begin rolling out the long-acting HIV prevention jab by March 2026. The injectable, which offers six months of protection per dose, is a major step forward in the country’s efforts to curb new HIV infections.

“This is a landmark moment for South Africa’s public healthcare landscape,” says Bell. “We are thrilled that the jab will soon be available to those who need it most. It represents a powerful tool that will help reduce the burden of HIV, especially among adolescent girls, young women, sex workers, and other high-risk communities.”

The jab, which has shown promising results in clinical trials, is expected to be a game-changer in HIV prevention. Its long-acting nature means fewer doses and improved adherence, which has historically been a challenge with daily oral PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis). Quantumed applauds the Department of Health’s commitment to making this innovation accessible to the public.

However, Bell cautions that while the jab is a significant advancement, it must not lead to a false sense of security. “The jab is designed to prevent HIV, but it does not offer protection against other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as HPV, syphilis, gonorrhoea, or chlamydia, nor does it prevent unintended pregnancies,” he explains. “We must continue to promote safe sex practices, regular STI screenings, and comprehensive sexual health education.”

Quantumed urges the public and healthcare providers to view the jab as part of a broader strategy, not a standalone solution. “We cannot afford to let our guard down,” Bell adds. “Complacency could reverse the gains we’ve made in STI prevention and reproductive health. We must continue to educate communities about the importance of condoms, routine testing, and open conversations about sexual health.”

In addition to the vaccine rollout, South Africa recently secured a $115 million emergency funding package from the United States under the PEPFAR Bridge Plan. This funding is intended to support critical HIV/AIDS services and ensure continuity of care for millions of South Africans.

“This emergency aid is a vital lifeline,” says Bell. “It will help stabilise programmes that have been under immense pressure and allow healthcare providers to continue delivering essential services, from testing and treatment to counselling and community outreach.”

However, Bell also acknowledges the broader context of this funding. Earlier in 2025, significant cuts to US aid disrupted HIV-related initiatives across South Africa. These cuts led to the closure of clinics, the suspension of research trials, and the loss of thousands of healthcare jobs. Vulnerable communities were left without access to life-saving services, and the ripple effects are still being felt.

“We must recognise that while the emergency funds are welcome, they do not undo the damage caused by earlier funding cuts,” Bell says. “We need long-term, sustainable investment in HIV prevention and treatment, not short-term fixes. The fight against HIV/AIDS is ongoing, and it requires consistent support from both local and international partners.”

Quantumed calls on government, civil society, and global stakeholders to remain steadfast in their commitment to ending HIV/AIDS. “We’ve come a long way, but the journey is far from over,” Bell concludes. “Let’s celebrate the progress, but let’s also stay focused. Innovation must be matched with education, access, and accountability. Together, we can build a future where HIV is no longer a threat — but that future depends on our actions today.”