AEGiS-14IAC: Litigating AIDS: background, strategies and outcomes of the Treatment Action Campaign's (TAC) case to prevent mother to child HIV transmission in South Africa.

14th International AIDS Conference

Barcelona, Spain - July 7-12, 2002

Litigating AIDS: background, strategies and outcomes of the Treatment Action Campaign's (TAC) case to prevent mother to child HIV transmission in South Africa.

Int Conf AIDS 2002 Jul 7-12; 14:(abstract no. ThOrE1425)

Heywood MJ
AIDS Law Project, Johannesburg, South Africa

ISSUES: Annually over 70 000 infants are born with HIV in South Africa. However, despite the growing body of medical evidence/opinion on the efficacy and benefits of interventions to reduce mother-to-child HIV transmission, the South African government's response is characterised by obfuscation and delay. This causes confusion and loss of life. Consequently, in August 2002, the Treatment Action Campaign together with a group of paediatricans launched a legal challenge, based on human rights entrenched in the South African Constitution, to seek a court order that would compel the government to make Nevirapine available, and to develop a reasonable national plan to prevent infant infections.

DESCRIPTION: The paper describes how the TAC was able to construct a legal strategy that deployed scientific evidence, medical opinion, economic research, and descriptions of the impact of MTCT in a court application founded on the assertion of legal duties linked to human rights. It describes how the court papers compose a body of evidence and testimony that capture the history of a conflict between health advocates and health authorities caused by political inertia and interference around the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It analyses the relationship between advocacy and law, critically debating the merits of legal contest around social and health issues.

ISSUES: The legal challenge will only be concluded in mid-2002 as a result of an appeal by the government to SA's Constitutional Court. The final judgement will have profound implications for a mother-to-child HIV transmission programme as well as for access to treatment and government responsibilities concerning allocation of resources for health. Linking advocacy and law had quantitative and qualitative benefits. RECOMMENDATION: Human rights law, combined with advocacy and supported by quality scientific evidence, is a way to claim rights, improve health, and overcome political barriers to HIV prevention and treatment.

Keywords: AEGIS, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, HIV Infections, HIV Seropositivity, Nevirapine, Human Rights, Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active, Civil Rights, Politics, Public Policy, South Africa, Child, Human, Infant, transmission, therapy, drug therapy

020707
ThOrE1425