In Pretoria today, a High Court judge ordered the South African government to immediately begin distributing a key anti-AIDS drug to pregnant women nationwide even though the government is appealing an initial ruling to that effect.

"I find myself unable to formulate a motivation for tolerating preventable deaths for the sake of sparing the respondent's [government's] prejudice that cannot amount to much more than organizational inconvenience," Pretoria High Court Judge Chris Botha said in his ruling. Pretoria had argued that data taken from studies conducted at research sites need "further study and consultation" so that the government can formulate an "appropriate response" to the transmission of HIV/AIDS from mother to child.

Botha had ordered the government on December 18 to give the drug nevirapine to HIV-positive women and their babies at the time of birth. He simultaneously granted the government the right to lodge an appeal. In today's ruling, Botha again ordered the government to distribute nevirapine at state facilities in each of South Africa's nine provinces. Two provinces, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, have already defied national policy by distributing nevirapine.

Health Minister Manto Tashabalala-Msimang said after the judge's first ruling the government would lodge an appeal to prevent the judiciary infringing on government policy-making. However, Botha said that he doubted whether the Constitutional Court, which is expected to rule on the government's appeal in May, would reverse his ruling. "I consider it unlikely that the order granted will be reversed. At best the respondents may achieve some modification of it," he said.

The AIDS Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) hailed the decision and called on the government to abandon its appeal. An appeal, TAC Secretary Mark Heywood said, would "kill children and the spirit of doctors and nurses, people who want to do the right thing."

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