Key AIDS Drug to be Made Available in Some South African Hospitals

A key AIDS drug that reduces the chances of HIV-positive pregnant women transmitting the virus to their children at birth will be made available in the South African province hardest hit by AIDS, an official said Monday. The decision to make nevirapine available at public hospitals in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal flies in the face of a national health department directive restricting the drug's use to a few pilot sites.

Nevirapine is approved by the World Health Organization, and studies show it can reduce the rate of mother-to-child HIV infections by up to 50 percent. But the South African government maintains its safety remains unproven and inadequate structures are in place to administer it. KwaZulu-Natal Premier Lionel Mtshali said he took the decision to make nevirapine available on principle, because it was "a pregnant woman's prerogative to save her child from contracting the AIDS virus," the South African Press Association reported.

KwaZulu-Natal, which is controlled by the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party, is the second province to make nevirapine available in public hospitals. Government studies indicate more than one in three people in KwaZulu-Natal are HIV-positive. In 2000, health officials began distributing the drug in the Western Cape, which was then controlled by the main opposition, the Democratic Alliance. Mtshali said his province has an obligation to supply AIDS drugs to pregnant mothers. "A mother who is already afflicted by an incurable disease should not have to contend with a hopeless situation of her unborn child facing the same affliction if it can be prevented," he said.

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