Adolescents with perinatal HIV (APHIV) experience emotional turmoil, which is worsened by real or perceived negative impacts on the adolescents' relationships, aspirations for their careers, and aspirations for their families.

South Africa (SA) has the largest antiretroviral therapy (ART) programme worldwide. Multiple factors contribute to virological failure (VF), including poor adherence and viral resistance mutations. A multidisciplinary team (MDT) clinic dedicated to those with VF may be of benefit; however, very little data from SA exist.

The roll-out of antiretroviral medicines has improved life expectancy in people living with HIV (PLHIV). This has resulted in more patients being hospitalised for non-communicable diseases, increasing risk for medication errors (MEs). Pharmacists, through medication reconciliation, may identify and reduce MEs in this population.

Anaemia is associated with reduced quality of life and increased mortality risk among people living with HIV (PLHIV). Although antiretroviral therapy (ART) reduces the prevalence of anaemia, some patients remain at risk after commencing ART.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic disrupted paediatric HIV services across South Africa. Shortly before COVID-19, updated national HIV guidelines were released.

South Africa has the largest HIV epidemic globally. Despite the scale-up of antiretroviral therapy, people living with HIV are still presenting with low CD4 counts.

Eswatini has a high HIV prevalence in adults and, despite being one of the first countries to achieve the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets, AIDS-related deaths are still high.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is recommended for people who are at substantial risk of HIV infection, in conjunction with other HIV prevention tools and strategies. Unfortunately, the uptake of PrEP among potential users in Namibia's Okongo district is low.

Reflexed cryptococcal antigenaemia (CrAg) testing has been offered since 2016 in South Africa, on remnant CD4 specimens, for people with a count < 100 cells/μL. Local guidelines recommended extending testing to 200 cells/μL.

Definition of chest X-ray (CXR) features associated with laboratory-confirmed pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) among HIV-positive adults is needed to improve diagnosis in high-burden settings.

HIV is a major public health issue in South Africa, with around 7.7 million people living with the virus by 2023, including 4.9 million women. In 2022, 257 171 pregnant women received antiretroviral therapy to prevent mother-to-child transmission.

Access to adolescent-friendly, culturally relevant and stigma-free mental health support is essential for reducing the long-term psychological, social and economic challenges of mental illness of youth living with HIV (YLWH). Now more than ever, innovative task-shifting interventions, through which non-mental health professionals provide mental health support to YLWH, need to be explored and supported. While many of these have considered shifting tasks to nurses, tapping into the wisdom and inspiration from artists in the community where YLWH are living could represent a novel and potentially powerful task-shifting strategy. In this opinion piece, we propose that the arts could be explored in future studies as a promising avenue for mental health interventions for YLWH in South Africa. Better Together is a peer-support intervention for youth living with chronic illness, which has been published previously by our team. As part of the discussion, we share feedback about the creative arts component of the Better Together groups provided by Better Together participants themselves. Overall, this feedback yielded several key insights which further underscore the idea that providing youth with opportunities to engage in creative arts in a group setting may represent a promising platform for addressing mental health in YLWH in South Africa. Specifically, we learned that (1) youth enjoyed the opportunity to engage creatively, (2) these experiences helped them connect with others, (3) they gained new insights and perspectives about themselves and their lives, and (4) they experienced a positive impact on their mood and well-being.

In 2022, Mozambique introduced Dolutegravir 10mg (pDTG), as part of paediatric antiretroviral therapy for children weighing < 20 kg. Understanding real-world challenges during national rollout can strengthen health systems in resource-limited settings.

Achieving optimal adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) is challenging. Consistency in HIV care and treatment is crucial for achieving viral load suppression and preventing HIV-related illnesses, disease progression to AIDS, mortality, drug resistance, and onward transmission.

Prevention of HIV vertical transmission programmes (VTPs) in South Africa has decreased paediatric HIV. These programmes require integration in referral hospitals.

Men who have sex with men (MSM) are disproportionately impacted by HIV in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where condomless anal intercourse (CAI) is a major driver of HIV transmission among this hidden subpopulation.

The high burden of cryptococcal meningitis (CM) among people living with HIV persists despite widespread access to antiretroviral therapy. Efforts to prevent CM among people living with HIV could be hindered by a limited understanding of their lived experiences of CM and its diagnosis.

Dual HIV/syphilis testing may be an acceptable intervention to identify men with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and at risk of HIV acquisition.

In South African antiretroviral guidelines, selected patients failing second-line protease inhibitor (PI)-based therapy qualify for genotypic resistance testing - those with PI resistance receive darunavir-based third-line regimens; those without PI resistance continue current regimen with adherence support. The Western Cape province, from September 2020, implemented a strategy of tenofovir-lamivudine-dolutegravir (TLD) for patients, provided there was no tenofovir resistance, irrespective of PI resistance.

Liver disease is the leading cause of non-AIDS-related mortality in people living with HIV (PLWH). Steatotic liver disease (SLD) is increasingly recognised as an important aetiological factor in liver dysfunction in PLWH.