AIDS activists and pediatricians won a landmark lawsuit against the government Friday, forcing it to provide a key drug to expectant mothers infected with HIV.
Activists who packed the court gallery cheered and hugged each other as Judge Chris Botha read a brief judgment stating that the government had to make the drug nevirapine available to the women giving birth in public hospitals.
Botha also ordered the government to institute a nationwide program to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
The government was given until March 31 to report back to the court on how the program–which was to include counseling, HIV testing and follow-up treatment–was being implemented.
About 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 by up to 50 percent.
