For Immediate Release: December 14, 2001

SAN FRANCISCO - The Pretoria High Court issued a ruling today ordering the South African government to offer treatment to pregnant women with HIV/AIDS in order to avoid mother-to-child-transmission (MTCT).

"This is a tremendous victory for HIV-positive women in South Africa and for a new generation of South Africans who will be given the opportunity to live free of the disease," said Karyn Kaplan, HIV/AIDS Program Officer at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC).

Scott Long, IGLHRC's Program Director who attended the first court hearing in this case, commented: "Treatment activists all over the world should pay attention to what happened today, the court established unequivocally the right to health care and the responsibility of the State to provide it."

In his decision, Judge Chris Botha declared that "about one thing there must be no misunderstanding: a countrywide MTCT prevention programme is an ineluctable obligation of the State." The court ordered the government to provide a comprehensive national MTCT roll-out plan by 31 March 2002. The Judge added that the current policy of the government to deny MTCT treatment for HIV-positive mothers in the public sector is "not reasonable" and "an unjustifiable barrier to the progressive realization of the right to health care."

"We call on the South African government to respect the South African Constitution and the decision of the Court; we ask them not to appeal this important ruling and to start implementing its recommendations right away," said Sydney Levy. IGLHRC's Communications Director. "Any delays will only cause more infections and deaths."

According to legal experts, the government has 15 working days to appeal the decision of the High Court.

Legal action on this case started August 21, 2001, when the Treatment Action Campaign, together with the Children's Rights Center and pediatricians represented by Dr. Haroon Saloojee served legal papers on the South African Minister of Health and nine provincial Health Ministers seeking relief from the High court for two demands, both of which were granted by the High Court today.

First, that the medicine Nevirapine, which is of undisputed safety and efficacy in reducing the risk of HIV transmission during delivery and for a period afterwards, be made available for prescription by doctors and other medical professionals who work in the public health sector to pregnant women with HIV. And second, that the government provide, or be ordered to provide, a comprehensive national plan that aims to prevent mother-to-child infections.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic has reached catastrophic proportions in South Africa. According to the South African Department of Health, by the end of 2000 it was estimated that there would be 4,7 million South Africans infected with HIV. This represents a figure of 1 in 9 South Africans. One of the most common methods of transmission of HIV is from mother to child at or around birth. This results in approximately 70,000 babies being infected each year.

MTCT can be effectively and substantially reduced by a single dose to the mother and child of a drug known as Nevirapine. The drug is registered in South Africa and it has been offered to the South African government free of charge by the manufacturer for five years for use in the public health sector. To date the South African government has not yet accepted this offer.

The South African Department of Health restricts the use of Nevirapine to two limited delivery points per province in the public health sector; the drug is available without restriction in the private health sector. The lawsuit and accompanying court decision will make Nevirapine universally available around the country.

For more information, including court submissions and excerpts from today's ruling, see the Treatment Action Campaign's website at http://www.tac.org.za/.

IGLHRC is a US-based non-profit, non-governmental organization that works to protect and advance the human rights of all people and communities subject to discrimination or abuse on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or HIV status.

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