South Africa has the unenviable status as having the highest HIV burden in the world. Nearly eight million people are living with HIV in the country.

Of these, just over six million are on antiretroviral treatment. This year’s World Aids Day is themed: “Take the rights path: My health, my right!”.

It’s a call to global leaders and citizens to address the inequalities which hinder progress in ending HIV and AIDS.

Experts say after years of education and awareness there are still too many people in South Africa who do not seek care or know their status. The hope of a vaccine has proven to be elusive, however, there are developments for a preventative injection for people living without HIV.

Desmond Tutu Health Foundation CEO, Professor Linda-Gail Bekker says they are preparing two kinds of injections; one being a two-monthly injection which goes into the bottom and the second being a six-monthly injection to protect against the virus.

“The very latest innovation has been to turn an anti-retroveral into an injectable form, and we have two kinds coming. One is a two-monthly intramuscular injections. So, it goes into the bottom and it lasts for two months and is very effective at keeping HIV away. The other, even more exciting recently, has been a six-monthly injection, which in this country and in Uganda, other countries around the world has shown almost 100% efficacy and a large variety of different populations in different risks as protection against HIV.”

Stellenbosch university, Professor Clive Gray says that children born from mothers who are infected are not as healthy as their counterparts born to healthy mothers.

Pre-exposure Prophylaxis is believed to be an effective way of preventing new infections and managing mother to child infections.

“The numbers of children infected are much lower, but the numbers of children exposed to either drug or HIV is much higher. So, it’s about 250,000 children a year. They will be born to mothers who are infected, on treatment, but these children are not infected, but they’re exposed in utero, in the womb to either HIV or drugs. This is causing a huge problem, uh, in those children … they are not as healthy as their counterparts born to healthy mums,” says Gray.

The PreP injections may protect people against HIV, but do not prevent other sexually transmitted infections.

Bekker says condoms remain the cornerstone of preventing the spread of STI and should be re-introduced to society as a tool for positive and safe sex.

“It’s really important that people do think about condoms wherever possible and use them when they can. And I’m appealing here to the young men of South Africa, because after all this is kind of their responsibility. This is something they wear. And so, you know, condoms really do need to come back into our lexicon and maybe we need to talk about how condoms can be part of great sex, you know, sort of be positive, sex positive, rather than see it as a barrier or an impediment to pleasure,” says Bekker.

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) says with nearly two million people living with HIV not on treatment, it is imperative that anti-retroviral are dispensed on a multi-month basis.

It says this will assist patients with reneging on treatments because of long waiting times at clinics or difficulty in reaching these facilities each month.