Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday December 19, 2001
"We have instructed our legal counsel to appeal the judgement to the Constitutional Court on this matter," Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said in a statement.
The decision is likely to provoke an outcry from AIDS activists and child health workers, who argue that President Thabo Mbeki's government has acted too slowly to fight mother-to-child transmission of HIV, which causes AIDS.
The Pretoria High Court ruled Friday that the government had a constitutional duty to expand access to the antiretroviral drug nevirapine, which has been shown to cut mother-to-child infection rates by up to 50%.
AIDS activist group Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), backed by doctors, had launched the court action, arguing that the government had a duty to offer nevirapine under the constitutional right to health treatment.
Between 70,000 and 100,000 babies are born HIV-positive every year in South Africa, which has more people living with HIV/AIDS than any other country. One in nine South Africans is estimated to be HIV-positive.
Under Friday's court ruling, the health department was told to return to court by March 31 to show how it would offer a national nevirapine program, which the government has refused to do because of cost and safety concerns.
There are side effects from nevirapine, but medical experts say they are limited and the drug is a life-saver.
Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim, which makes nevirapine, has offered to provide the drug free to South Africa for 5 years.
The government's approach and commitment to curbing the pandemic has been widely criticized, especially since Mbeki has questioned widely-held beliefs about HIV, including whether it causes AIDS.
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