PRETORIA, Dec 19 (AFP) - South Africa's government will appeal a high court ruling ordering it to give a key drug to HIV-positive pregnant women to help protect their unborn babies from AIDS, the health minister said Wednesday.
But Manto Tshabalala-Msimang also indicated that the government might be looking for a compromise on the issue by pledging to initiate a broad "consultation" of current HIV prevention policies, starting in January.
The appeal to the Constitutional Court aims to prevent the judiciary infringing on government policy-making, the health minister said in a statement.
The appeal "is aimed at clarifying a constitutional and jurisdictional matter which -- if left vague -- could throw the executive policy-making into disarray and create confusion about the principle of the separation of powers, which is a cornerstone of our democracy," she said.
The Pretoria High Court on Friday 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 had 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 some 4.7 million people are HIV positive in South Africa, one of the highest proportions of any country in the world.
Authorities in South Africa have repeatedly been accused of failing to recognise the magnitude of the AIDS pandemic sweeping the country.
The minister, who met health officials from the country's provinces to discuss the matter Tuesday, said the appeal was not meant to obtruct development of a current pilot programme available in 18 public health centres to about 10,000 pregnant women.
"Government takes the view that policy, including policy on HIV/AIDS, may be guided by firm principles but that it is not cast in stone," the minister said.
Further appraisal of the current pilot programme would therefore go ahead, starting in January "to chart plans for the future ... on the basis of broad consensus," he added.
Zackie Achmat, head of the Treatment Action Campaign, one of the groups involved in bringing the case against the government, expressed "regret" that authorities were appealing the case "because they place more lives at risk".
But he went on to welcome the decision to hold a broad consultation, describing this as a "victory" and "exactly what the court asked them to do."
Such a move, he said, might be a signal "that we can work together" in developing appropriate prevention and treatment therapies.
He went on to urge the government to immediately order health centres which are able to do so to prescribe Nevirapine to HIV-positive pregnant women.
A spokeswoman for the health ministry said the government appeal would likely be lodged within 15 days and the matter could then take "months" to be resolved.
The government was anxious however "not to leave a vacuum" and not to give the impression that, in the meantime, it would be 'business as usual", Jo-Anne Collinge said.
011219
AF0112B9
Copyright © AFP or Agence France-Presse, 2001 - All Rights Reserved. AFP articles contained on the AEGiS web site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without AFP's prior written permission. You may make one copy of each article for your personal, non-commercial use only; more copies would require AFP's prior written permission.. http://www.afp.com/
ÆGiS is made possible through unrestricted grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, the National Library of Medicine, and donations from users like you. Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2001. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
©1990, 2001 - ÆGiS. ÆGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All materials appearing on ÆGIS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of ÆGIS and the Sisters of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, or the party credited as the provider of the content.
