BY SIFISO NHLABATSI
MBABANE – Mbabane is sounding the alarm over new HIV infections after the City recorded 153 new cases, with most of the infections occurring among adolescent girls and young women.
The cases were recorded during the 2025/2026 reporting period, according to the Municipal Council of Mbabane’s annual performance report. Council said all 153 people who tested positive were successfully linked to care.
The figures come amid renewed national concern over rising HIV infections, with recent findings presented by the National Emergency Response Council on HIV and AIDS (NERCHA) showing that Eswatini recorded about 4 220 new HIV infections in 2024, up from approximately 4 000 recorded in the previous HIV impact measurement survey.
The latest national findings were presented during the 2026 HIV Prevention Indaba, which involved a community-centred study examining the barriers and factors influencing HIV prevention across the country.
The study involved 1 284 participants from Hhohho, Manzini, Lubombo and Shiselweni and was conducted between November 2025 and February 2026. It found that young people, adolescent girls and young women, as well as other vulnerable populations, remain particularly affected by new HIV infections.
The national picture is particularly concerning for young women. NERCHA’s National HIV Strategic Framework records that HIV incidence among women aged 15 to 49 was 1.45 per cent among those aged 15 to 49 in the 2021 estimates, compared to 0.20 per cent among men. Overall adult incidence stood at 0.62 per cent.
Against this backdrop, Mbabane Council has intensified HIV prevention and testing interventions.
During the reporting period, Council provided 7 235 HIV testing services, distributed 3 477 HIV self-test kits, provided 2 074 PrEP interventions and administered 279 post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) interventions.
Council also distributed 684 616 condoms and 22 978 units of lubricants as part of its prevention response.
Council said the increase in new infections was not unique to Mbabane, noting that the city, like the rest of the country, was experiencing an increase in new HIV infections.
It said its future prevention focus, guided by NERCHA, would combine biomedical and behavioural interventions to prevent new infections and strengthen HIV prevention efforts.
The NERCHA prevention study has similarly pointed to the need to move beyond conventional awareness campaigns. Its findings identified social and economic vulnerabilities, gaps in communication between young people and parents, limited access to some prevention services and other structural barriers as factors affecting HIV prevention.
NERCHA’s national strategic framework also identifies low condom use, gaps in awareness of HIV-positive status and limited access to or uptake of PrEP among factors requiring attention.
Despite Eswatini’s major progress in HIV treatment and viral suppression, NERCHA has warned that the country cannot afford complacency. Its 2024–2028 strategic framework targets a reduction in HIV incidence among people aged 15 and above from 0.62 per cent in 2021 to 0.31 per cent by 2028.
The 153 new infections now add a city-level warning to the national challenge, particularly as young women continue to bear a disproportionate share of new infections.
#Mbabane #HIV #HIVPrevention #NERCHA #Eswatini #AIDS #YoungWomen #AdolescentGirls #PublicHealth
