Durban | Tuesday
KWAZULU-Natal premier Lionel Mtshali on Monday announced that the province would start making available to HIV-positive pregnant mothers in state hospitals the anti-retroviral drug Nevirapine.
The drug has some success in preventing transmission of the syndrome from the mother to newborn babies.
Mtshali said he took the decision on principle saying it was a pregnant woman’s prerogative to ”save her child from contracting the Aids virus”.
The decision makes KwaZulu-Natal the second province to decide to make Nevirapine available to state patients.
The Western Cape made the drug available in 2000 amid controversy due to government policy on the drug. Government has said the effects of the drug, or its toxicity levels, were not properly known and has approved its administration in only a few pilot projects.
Government’s failure to approve Nevirapine for state hospital patients last year led to court action against it by the Treatment Action Campaign. A Pretoria High Court judge ordered that Nevirapine be provided to HIV-positive pregnant mothers in state hospitals.
Government has appealed the order and it could take up to a year for a final decision.
On Monday Mtshali said in a statement he took a ”principled position that the government of this province is under obligation to supply anti-retroviral drugs to pregnant mothers who are HIV-positive”.
”While it is accepted that the drug Nevirapine does cause complications, it is the pregnant woman’s prerogative to save her child from contracting the Aids virus.
KwaZulu-Natal has the highest incidence of HIV-Aids in the country. Mtshali’s decision comes after doctors ignored government policy on the matter and administered the drug to patients.
”We commend the courageous decision of the doctors who have committed themselves to supply the anti-retroviral 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. – Sapa