‘People Were Really Quite Stunned’: Dr. Caroline Ryan, Incoming CDC Country Director for Ethiopia, Shares Lessons from the Fight Against HIV, COVID-19 in Eswatini

When Dr. Caroline Ryan became the CDC Country Director for Eswatini in 2015, the small kingdom in Southern Africa (then known as Swaziland) had the highest rate of HIV in the world – 27% of the adult population. But there was reason to be optimistic.

The following year, a study showed that the number of new infections in the country had been nearly halved and the number of people who were on antiretrovirals that were virally suppressed had doubled.