JOHANNESBURG, Dec 18 (AFP) - The South African government, facing growing calls for reform of its AIDS policy, Tuesday considered its response to a high court decision ordering the public health service to give HIV-positive pregnant women a key drug to protect their unborn babies.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was meeting top officials from the country's eight provinces Tuesday afternoon in the Johannesburg area to discuss Friday's court ruling, a government spokeswoman said.
On Friday, just ahead of a three-day public holiday, the government said it was "studying the detail of the judgment, in order to establish its premise, including such critical issues as the role of the judiciary in relation to executive policy decisions." It said it would make known its decision this week.
In its arguments before the court, the government outlined its concern that in ruling on the case -- brought by the non-governmental organisation Treatment Action Campaign, a paediatrician and a children's help group -- the judiciary might infringe on governement policy-making.
The Pretoria high court ordered the government to provide the antiretroviral drug Nevirapine to all pregnant women who are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to help prevent mother-to-child transmission. It also ordered the government to submit a plan by March 31 on how it would go about implementing an extended programme.
An estimated 25 percent of pregnant women in South Africa are HIV-positive and infect more than 70,000 babies every year.
Currently, the public health service runs a Nevirapine test programme in 18 pilot sites for some 10,000 pregnant women, and the drug's German manufacturer has offered a five-year free supply to the country.
However leading officials, including President Thabo Mbeki, have questioned the drug's safety.
Mbeki, who has been accused of failing to recognise the magnitude of the AIDS pandemic sweeping the country, caused an outcry last year when he publicly supported dissident scientists' views that HIV does not cause AIDS.
Opposition parties and leading medical representatives have welcomed the high court decision, along with several of the ruling African National Congress' key allies. These include COSATU, the 1.7 million-strong trade union confederation, and the communist party.
On Tuesday, several South African newspapers said they hoped the government would now amend its AIDS fighting policy.
"There is broad consensus among epidemiologists that up to 70,000 babies could be saved each year: What's the hold-up?" the Star newspaper asked in an editorial, while hoping that with the court decision, "this will now all change.
"It is difficult to recall the ANC ever being so isolated on any issue as it is on HIV/AIDS treatment," the financial Business Day said for its part.
"Without the standard constraints on party members, Mbeki and Manto Tshabalala-Msimang would likely find themselves isolated even within their own party," it added.
"The (high court) judgment is a swingeing demonstration of government wrong-headedness," it said, adding that if the government appealed the decision it risked a "humiliating defeat".
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