OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 8.15pm..
THE SA Human Rights Commission said on Tuesday that it would decide on what steps to take only once Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang had responded to allegations that denying the anti-retroviral drug AZT to pregnant women was unconstitutional.
“The commission, again in keeping with its procedures, will put these allegations to the minister for her response,” the HRC said in a statement in Johannesburg.
The commission received a complaint from an Eastern Cape doctor, Costa Gazi, saying that the denial of AZT (Azidothymidine) to pregnant women with HIV/Aids was a violation of Section 27(1)(a) of the Constitution.
Gazi, who is also the health secretary of the Pan Africanist Congress, alleged that the Health Department’s refusal to administer the drug was a violation of the state’s obligation to provide primary health care.
The section states that everyone has the right to have access to health care services, including reproductive health care.
The HRC said that when considering the complaint, it was not concerned about whether or not AZT was the proper drug to give pregnant women with HIV/Aids, but instead it took the “broader socio-economic question of what the state is doing to deliver in terms of the.. section”.