Editorial

Abstract

South Africa stands at the epicentre of two intersecting pandemics — HIV and diabetes — each presenting immense and evolving public health challenges. While the country has long borne the world’s heaviest burden of HIV, it is now also experiencing a rapid rise in diabetes prevalence, positioning it as the epicentre of the diabetes epidemic on the African continent. Global evidence increasingly demonstrates an association between HIV infection, diabetes, and exposure to older antiretroviral therapies (ART), which have been linked to metabolic complications. As the population of people living with HIV ages and the burden of noncommunicable diseases continues to rise, these two pandemics are set on a collision course with far-reaching implications for healthcare systems, resource allocation, and long-term outcomes. In this edition, Perumal et al. present data from the Durban Diabetes Study exploring the relationship between HIV infection, antiretroviral therapy, and dysglycaemia.