E-DRUG: TAC wins court case against SA government
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[In the 2nd ground breaking court case this year in South Africa,
an NGO has succesfully used the Constitution to force a
government to make an essential drug available to all people
who need it. The Pretoria High Court today instructed the
government to have a plan ready by March 2002 how to
provide nevirapine to all HIV+ mothers who ask for it.
The court also instructed the government to provide free
artificial baby foods for 6 months. The government was
also told to pay for the legal costs of the NGO.
Well done, TAC! The government has 2 weeks to appeal.
Copied as fair use from Business Day. NN]
http://www.businessday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,989923-60780,0
0.html
SA must give drugs to HIV mothers, court rules
The government is obliged to provide the anti-retroviral drug
Nevirapine to all HIV-
positive pregnant women, the Pretoria High Court ruled on Friday.
Judge Chris
Botha ruled in favour of the Treatment Action Campaign in its
application to
force the government to provide the drug to all such women in order to
prevent
the transmission of the virus to their unborn children. The judge said
that the
women should be suitable and they should be counselled. He also
ordered that
the government should, by the end of March, provide a programme of how
they
will extend their mother-to-child transmission prevention programme.
Sapa
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