Issued by: Department of Health
21 August 2001
In the light of the statement by the Treatment Action Campaign, we expected that papers would be served on the Ministry of Health today, indicating that TAC has launched its court application about the use of nevirapine in the public sector.
However, by close of business today no papers had been served at the State Attorney's offices and we can only assume that this will take place tomorrow. If so, the Ministry's first step will be to consult legal counsel and we will issue a further statement at a later time.
The case would centre on TAC's position that nevirapine should be made generally available throughout the public health service for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Currently nevirapine is only provided at specific research sites in the public health service. Certain operational challenges relating to the prevention of HIV transmission to babies are being explored at these sites and the intention has been for this process to inform decisions on expanding the nevirapine programme.
Enquiries:
Jo-Anne Collinge at 082 787 0202
Sibani Mngadi at 082 772 0161