Eswatini starts administering lenacapavir to curb spread of HIV

Eswatini joined a handful of countries to officially roll out new HIV prevention drug lenacapavir on Wednesday, announcing that 2,000 Swazis had received the jab since December.

The United States, where the drug was formulated, and seven other African countries with high HIV prevalence rates have introduced it so far.

"People have been very receptive," Sindy Matse, programme manager for the Eswatini National AIDS Programme, told Reuters, adding that stock was nearly exhausted by the initial uptake.

U.S.-based Gilead Sciences' drug lenacapavir is a subcutaneous injection given twice a year. It aims to overcome problems associated with daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis pills (PrEP), such as forgetting to take them and failing to acquire enough pills to keep taking them consistently.

Matse said the programme aimed to have it available in all 206 health facilities that had been offering PrEP.

Eswatini is a small South African kingdom formerly known as Swaziland.

Around a quarter of Swazis between the ages of 15 and 49 carry the virus, according to the latest data, from 2023, from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. But new infections fell by nearly threequarters between 2010 and 2024, to 4,000 from 14,000, owing to better prevention and treatment, the CDC says.

-Reporting by Lunga Masuku; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Alex Richardson/Reuters