Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday November 27, 2001
Wambui Chege

Government lawyers said Tuesday such a program would paralyze its public health system as South Africa had more people living with HIV-AIDS than any other country. It also had doubts about the efficacy of nevirapine. The drug was offered to the government free for five years by German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim last year.

"The government has stated on oath it does not have the resources. (Lack of resources) plays a major role, but one cannot exclude studies of resistance, long term efficacy and safety," Marumo Moerane, lawyer for the government, told the court.

AIDS activists say President Thabo Mbeki's government should stop spending billions of dollars on a new arms deal and divert some of the money to badly-needed AIDS drugs.

Mbeki, who has yet to acknowledge a causal link between HIV and AIDS, has said antiretrovirals are as dangerous as the disease they treat.

"It's shameful. The government is basically saying 'we reserve the right to hand out this life-saving medicine'," said Mark Heywood, secretary of AIDS lobby group Treat Action Campaign (TAC) which is leading the case against the government.

TAC and other groups lobbying on behalf of people living with HIV-AIDS have taken the National Department of Health and health ministers from eight of the country's nine provinces to court saying they are violating people's constitutional right to life and to health care.

GOVERNMENT CLAIMS NEVIRAPINE IS TOXIC LONG TERM

Between 70,000 and 100,000 babies are born HIV-positive yearly. A dose of nevirapine -- a tablet given to the mother during labor and a teaspoon to the baby within the first 72 hours after birth -- could cut infection by up to 50 percent, the activists say.

The government has set up pilot projects at 18 sites across the country to assess the value of nevirapine, but the AIDS groups say this is insufficient as the program reached only 10 percent of HIV-positive women. Moerane said the government's cautious attitude had been prompted by some tests which showed the drug was toxic particularly when used over a long period of time.

"There've been long-term side effects, including severe life-threatening reactions. We're not dealing with an ordinary drug, we're dealing with a potent drug which has certain requirements in order to be administered effectively," he said.

For mothers like Sarah Halele, the government's failure to provide the treatment nationally not only angered her but raised the fear that her four-month-old baby might not live to see adulthood.

Halele, herself HIV-positive, was living in Sebokeng, south of Johannesburg, when she went into premature labor. She missed nevirapine because she did not live near one of the test pilot hospitals.

"I was very angry with the government. I wanted to save my child but now I don't know if he is HIV-positive. He has not been tested yet," the 30-year-old Halele, told Reuters.
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