Opinion: A drug priced out of reach in Africa could save lives from a neglected killer

When it comes to controlling the AIDS pandemic, Botswana is in many ways a model for the world. Last year, the country became one of the first to achieve ambitious United Nations goals for universal access to timely, high-quality treatment of HIV, doing so years before the United States is projected to reach the same targets.

But even in Botswana, a collective failure of the global fight is on stark display: an inability to protect the poorest individuals with HIV from an infection called cryptococcal meningitis, or “crypto” as it’s commonly known.

One of the biggest reasons, say infectious disease experts, is the lack of access in Africa to a key component of the crypto treatment regimen, a 60-year-old antifungal drug called flucytosine that should cost