Health Check

In the week of World AIDS Day, Health Check looks at what's being described as a milestone in the prevention of HIV infection in women. It is a form of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) - an injection every 8 weeks of a drug called cabotegravir. A clinical trial has been comparing it to a daily PrEP pill which is already known to be effective at preventing HIV infection. The injection regimen was about 90% more effective at shielding women from the virus than the daily tablet. The trial involves more than 3,000 women in seven Southern and East African countries. Claudia talks to study co-leader Sinead Delany-Moretlwe of the University of Witwatersrand about why this form of PrEP seems to be so effective and whether it will be affordable for low and middle income countries. Chhavi Sachdev reports on informal health workers known as ‘chhota doctors’ who are the backbone of primary health care for the hundreds of millions of rural people in India. They are not formally recognised as health care providers by the