September 01, 2025
The world's largest gathering of AIDS experts wrapped up last month where International AIDS Society highlighted exciting findings from research by SPH's Dr Kirsten Stoebenau and her colleagues at University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) on the successful uptake of a long-lasting injectable protection against HIV infection among young women.
"Led by colleagues at UMB, we are studying the first real-world implementation of a long-acting injectable for HIV prevention among adolescent girls and young women in Zambia. We found that, when added to a trusted HIV prevention program, girls and young women were more willing to start using it and also stick to it. They appreciated that it's discreet and has few side effects. Preliminary findings show 100% of our study participants had completed the second dose (of two doses) on schedule.
Given the host of barriers for young women in particular to using traditional prevention methods like condoms, or more recently daily pill forms of PreP, our participants' total adherence to injectables is very exciting for women who want consistent protection from HIV,” said Stoebenau.