South Africa: Court Orders Government to Provide Key AIDS Drug to Pregnant Women

AIDS activists and pediatricians won a landmark lawsuit against the South African government today, forcing it to make a key AIDS drug available to expectant mothers with HIV. AIDS activists who packed the Pretoria court gallery cheered and hugged each other as Judge Chris Botha read a brief judgment stating that the government has to make the drug nevirapine available to all women giving birth in public hospitals.

The government also has to institute a comprehensive program to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV nationwide, Botha said. The government was given until March 31, 2002 to report back to the court on how the program -- which was to include counseling, HIV testing and follow-up treatment -- was being implemented. Dr. Haron Saloojee, one of the pediatricians who filed the lawsuit, called the verdict "a special Christmas present" that could potentially save the lives of 50,000 babies next year.

Some 200 babies are born HIV-positive every day in South Africa, and studies show nevirapine can reduce the transmission of the virus from mother to child during labor by up to 50 percent. But the government had argued that the drug remained unproven. The German drug company Boehringer Ingelheim has offered nevirapine free to developing countries. South Africa has yet to accept the offer, although it is testing the drug at 18 pilot sites. About one in nine South Africans are HIV-positive, and the government's often muddled approach to dealing with AIDS has drawn widespread criticism. Government officials were not immediately available for comment.

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