‘No more than a drop in the ocean’: this drug could end new HIV infections in Eswatini – why isn’t there enough?

Lenacapavir, given as an injection every six months, can prevent people from contracting HIV. Eswatini is one of the first countries to roll out the drug. Photograph: Brian Otieno/The Global Fund

If Precious asks her client to use a condom, she can charge him 100 lilangeni – about £4.50. If she agrees not to use one, she can charge double. The financial incentive for sex workers in Eswatini not to use protection is obvious – as is the risk, in a country where one in four people are infected with HIV.

Last year, Precious visited a clinic with five other sex workers to get tested. Four of them had the virus.