Washington: About 1,000 doses of Gilead Sciences Inc 's drug lenacapavir were delivered to Zambia and Eswatini last Thursday, U.S. and company officials said, the first delivery under a U.S. scheme to supply the HIV prevention drug to countries with a high prevalence of the virus that causes AIDS .

Zambia and Eswatini each received roughly 500 doses, and Gilead is working to receive regulatory approval for distribution in other so-called high-burden sub-Saharan countries. The African region remains the epicenter of the AIDS pandemic.

But the United States will not provide U.S.-funded doses to South Africa, which has the world's highest HIV burden with about 8 million people, or one in five adults, living with the virus.

"Obviously we encourage every country, including count

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