Inside questions driving interest in Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis injections at Witkoppen Clinic
From pill bottles to discreet injections — Witkoppen patients are asking if long acting HIV prevention could mean more privacy, less stigma, and one less thing to remember.
Witkoppen Clinic’s patients have one thing in common right now: A growing curiosity about what an injection-based alternative to daily Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) could mean for their lives.
The questions tend to follow a pattern, says Thabo Choshi, from the non-profit healthcare facility in Fourways. A patient sits down at Witkoppen Clinic, and before long, the same handful of concerns surface: How well does this actually work? How often do I need to come back? Will it hurt? Then, almost always, the one that sits beneath the others, will anyone know
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Choshi has fielded enough of these conversations to recognise the rhythm. Patients start practical, effectiveness, frequency, side effects, before circling, often quietly, toward the question that matters most to them: privacy. “Many patients specifically ask, ‘Will people know I’m taking it?’.”
He described it as a recurring theme that reflects how much stigma still shapes decisions around HIV prevention. He said, for some, that’s precisely the appeal of a long-acting injection, it disappears into the background of daily life in a way a pill bottle on a shelf cannot.
Then there’s the simpler problem of just remembering. A daily pill assumes a kind of routine that not everyone has. Steady mornings, a fixed address, a life that doesn’t involve much travel. “Maintaining a daily pill routine is not always easy, and for patients juggling unpredictable schedules, an injection that needs attention only periodically can feel less like a treatment and more like one less thing to manage.”
Choshi is careful to frame PrEP itself as something broader than a response to risk. He said it isn’t reserved for people who see themselves as vulnerable; it’s offered as a preventive option for anyone wanting more agency over their sexual health. “The goal is not to promote risky behaviour, but to provide an additional layer of protection against HIV infection.”
Also read: Witkoppen Clinic opens its doors to tomorrow’s healers
Witkoppen now offers the Lenacapavir HIV prevention injection to eligible patients, at no charge beyond the clinic’s standard admin processing fee.
Access is open to pregnant and postnatal women, adolescent girls and young women aged 15–24, and key populations, including men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, and female sex workers.
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