6 month supply of ARVs for people with HIV in all clinics now!
Bloemfontein, 15 September 2026 – Over the next week the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) will be at clinics calling for everyone eligible to be offered a 6 month supply of ARVs on their next rescript. TAC members will begin the week by mobilising outside Mmabana Clinic in Mangaung, where 0% of people surveyed by Ritshidze in August 2026 were receiving a 6 month supply of ARVs.
Getting a 6 month supply of pills (known as “6MMD” or “6 multi month dispensing”) would mean a person only has to make two trips to the clinic each year to collect ARVs. This makes it much easier for people to stay on treatment by reducing the cost of getting to the clinic, the hours spent waiting every year, the stress of repeated trips, and the cost of missing work or piece job opportunities. Importantly it will also reduce congestion and overall waiting times for everyone using the clinic, and reduce the burden on already overstretched healthcare workers.
One person who is unemployed in Limpopo explained to us how a 6 month supply would help him significantly cut the cost of travelling to the clinic: “It is quite a distance to get to the clinic. It costs me R24 and sometimes I’m forced to walk when I don’t have the taxi fare… I would like to get [a 6 month supply] because it will reduce clinic visits and reduce the financial strain”.
For a person living with HIV in Mopani, each clinic visit ends up being a long and arduous wait: “We see the day ending and the evening approaching while we are still waiting to be assisted at the clinic… After waking up early to get to the clinic around 7 or 8am we sometimes only come back home around 6pm.” She told us that the situation is “painful” but she has to collect her lifesaving pills. “If they could give us a 6 month supply of pills.. I would only need to come back once more that year”.
Another person living with HIV in Mangaung explained how the delays at the clinic can cause people to stop taking their treatment altogether, saying: “I always wait for a long time when I come to collect my ARVs.. The queues are very long.. Files always get lost… the long waiting times make you think twice about attending your appointment. Getting a 6 month supply would make my life much easier”. An unemployed man in the Free State echoed this, saying: “Spending an entire day at the clinic every 2 months can become so frustrating that some people may even give up taking their treatment… A 6 month supply would reduce the number of times we have to visit the clinic and would make it much easier to stay on treatment”.
A construction worker in Mangaung explained the difficulties in repeatedly asking for a day off from work just to collect your medication: “I must ask my bosses for permission to travel back for my appointment dates. It is not always easy to ask for time off… Getting a 6 month supply would make it easier for people like me who work away from home”. Another person explained to us how having to go to the clinic frequently costs time and money, saying: “it puts my job at risk because I have to ask for time off regularly”, and another from Johannesburg explained how the long waits “makes it impossible for us to go to the clinic and work on the same day”.
For those working outside the province a 6 month supply could ensure better adherence: “A 6 month supply of ARVs would help me a lot… sometimes I travel outside the province. If I leave for several months I’d know that I have enough pills and would not have to miss any days without taking my treatment”.
Not all people living with HIV are informed about 6MMD. One person told us: “I’d really like to receive a 6 month ARV refill but I do not have enough information about who qualifies or how to access it”, and another said they’d “never heard about a 6 month refill”. Others are being put through unnecessary administrative hurdles such as filling out forms that are not required in the guidelines: “They recently told us about the possibility of receiving a 6 month supply of treatment, and we filled in the forms, but no progress has been made”.
From 1 April 2026, all facilities are now able to provide 6MMD – and TAC welcomed the commitment made by the National Department of Health in May 2026 to enrol 1.5 million people on 6 month supply of ARVs by March 2027. However, by June 2026 only 314,996 people have been enrolled across the country.
A snap survey carried out by Ritshidze in August 2026 revealed that 6MMD rollout varied dramatically across facilities. For example, 58% of people surveyed at Letiticia Bam CHC in Nelson Mandela Bay got a 6 month supply on the day of monitoring, whereas 0% of people surveyed did at Ngove Clinic in Mopani. Unfortunately, Ritshidze was unable to comprehensively monitor 6MMD availability at all our sites, due to lack of resources following the United States funding cuts last year. As such a snap survey was carried out to get a sense of the rollout. The table below outlines the data collected in the snap survey.
| Clinic | District | Province | % surveyed getting 6MMD |
| Letiticia Bam CHC | Nelson Mandela Bay | Eastern Cape | 58% |
| Bloemsruit Clinic | Mangaung | Free State | 48% |
| St Elizabeth Gateway Clinic | OR Tambo | Eastern Cape | 42% |
| Umlazi U21 Clinic | eThekwini | KwaZulu-Natal | 40% |
| Perskebult Clinic | Capricorn | Limpopo | 38% |
| Umlazi D Clinic | eThekwini | KwaZulu-Natal | 36% |
| Seshego Zone 4 Clinic | Capricorn | Limpopo | 33% |
| Palmerton Clinic | OR Tambo | Eastern Cape | 24% |
| Mafakathini Clinic | uMgungundlovu | KwaZulu-Natal | 20% |
| Nomangesi Jayiya Clinic | Nelson Mandela Bay | Eastern Cape | 16% |
| Mpophomeni Clinic | uMgungundlovu | KwaZulu-Natal | 16% |
| Michael Maponya Clinic | Johannesburg | Gauteng | 12% |
| Mabayeni Clinic | Mopani | Limpopo | 0% |
| Mmabana Clinic | Mangaung | Free State | 0% |
| Ngove Clinic | Mopani | Limpopo | 0% |
| Orange Farm Ext 7 Clinic | Johannesburg | Gauteng | 0% |
To ensure equity and reach the 1.5 million target there must be a rapid catch up in enrollment, across all clinics, not just some. Every single eligible person living with HIV* – meaning stable, on ARVs for 12 months, using TLD, and having two suppressed viral loads – must be offered 6MMD when they go for their rescript. This must include both people collecting at standard facility medicine dispensing, and people using facility pick-up points and external pick-up points supported by CCMDD. While our demand creation activities targeted particular clinics in three districts, this catch up applies to all districts.
“Giving people a 6 month supply of ARVs is an extremely simple intervention with big gains for people living with HIV, and the public health system more broadly. We support the ambitious target set by the National Department of Health and commend the progress being made in certain clinics,” said Sibongile Tshabalala, TAC’s National Chairperson.
“Now we have to see this progress expanding to all facilities. That is why we are outside Mmabana Clinic today, asking that everyone eligible is offered 6MMD on the day of their rescript. Not for a day in the future, or after filling out unnecessary forms, but to take home 180 pills the same day! Only then can we reach the 1.5 million target, and ensure that all stable people living with HIV are equally offered the opportunity to reduce unnecessary clinic visits when policy already allows them to come far less often.”
TAC’s awareness raising activities will continue at Orange Farm Ext 7 Clinic in Johannesburg on Thursday 17 September, and Mapayeni Clinic on Monday 21 September. At both clinics no-one surveyed by Ritshidze was getting a 6 month supply of pills yet.
#MoreARVPillsNow
For more information & media enquiries contact:
Ndivhuwo Rambau | 066 161 1048 | media@tac.org.za
Lotti Rutter | 082 065 5842 | lotti@healthgap.org
Notes
WHAT: On Tuesday 15 September, Thursday 17 September, and Monday 21 September the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) will picket at three clinics in Mangaung, Johannesburg, and Mopani to encourage people living with HIV to ask for 6 month ARV refills, and call on the district health department to ensure that everyone eligible is offered a 6 month supply.
WHO: 150 TAC members will be outside Mmabana Clinic (Mangaung), and Orange Farm Ext 7 Clinic (Johannesburg), Mapayeni Clinic (Mopani), educating people living with HIV about longer ARV refills, while a group of people living with HIV with appointments that day will be demanding they get a 6 month supply during their clinic visit. Facility staff will receive a memorandum on the day calling for commitment to rapidly getting everyone eligible on 6MMD at their clinic, and the District Department of Health will receive a memorandum calling for rapid progress across the district.
* People living with HIV may qualify for 6MMD if:
- They are older than 5 years of age
- They are not pregnant and do not have an infant younger than 1 year old
- They are clinically stable with no TB or any other illness or condition that needs check-ups more frequently than every 6 months
- Their last two viral loads were both undetectable (less than 50 copies/mL)
- They have been on treatment for at least 12 months
- Their ARV regimen is TLD (Fixed-dose combination of T = Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, L =Lamivudine, D = Dolutegravir (DTG)) and they do not have any other chronic condition
- They want to receive 6-months supply all at once from the clinic
