Defiant province to give AIDS drugs to mothers

HIV positive pregnant women in KwaZulu Natal state hospitals will soon receive the antiretroviral drug Nevirapine, the provincial government announced on Monday.

KwaZulu Natal is now the second province to defy government policy by making the drug available. The Western Cape led the way in 2000 and has launched a rollout campaign that will eventually reach all clinics and hospitals in the province.

The South African government has refused to supply the drug, saying its toxicity levels are unknown and the country lacked adequate infrastructure to administer its use. They have approved the distribution of the drug - designed to block mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS - in only 18 pilot sites across the country.

KwaZulu Natal premier Lionel Mtshali, said in a statement on Monday that "it is the pregnant woman's prerogative to save the child from contracting the AIDS virus". Mtshali praised doctors who recently ignored government policy and administered the drug to patients.

"We commend the courageous decision of the doctors who have committed themselves to supply the antiretroviral drugs to pregnant mothers at Empangeni, Bethesda and other hospitals in those parts of KwaZulu Natal which are ravaged by the scourge of HIV and Aids," Mtshali said in the statement.

Last year, AIDS activist group the Treatment Action Campaign and a group of doctors took the government to court demanding that the state provide Nevirapine to all HIV positive pregnant women. The court ordered that government provide Nevirapine in all state hospitals. Government has appealed the order.