HARD WORK and pushing forward in her studies in the field of Clinical Technology, is bearing fruit for Ms. Thabile Mwandla, as she is in the team of researchers involved in developing and testing Lenacapavir, which is an injection designed to protect people from being infected by HIV.
Ms Mwandla, who was trained in this field at the Durban University of Technology, said this is very good news for her, and she is happy to be in this team as 37,920 injections have been administered. The injections are yet to be introduced by Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi and President Cyril Ramaphosa.
This lady from Maphumulo, KwaZulu-Natal, comments on this and said: “We are very happy that this injection has been approved to work, and we see that it will be very useful to prevent people from being infected with the HIV virus, especially in the community of people in rural areas where people lack information.”
Continuing, he said that it took them about three years to test this injection, in collaboration with local and Ugandan researchers, and they used patients aged 18 to 25 who helped them so that everything went in the right direction until now.
“Now my wish is for this injection to reach the general public for free, especially for young people in schools and universities, because I believe that this is where it needs to be strengthened the most. It is easy for people to get infected with this virus. We need to speed up this program,” said Ms. Mwandla.
Apart from the science of the work she does, Ms. Mwandla is an entrepreneur and the owner of the Mwandla Foundation, which is her non-profit organization that is responsible for helping high school students with their daily needs, advising them on the fields they should study after matriculation and helping them achieve their dreams.