South Africa's highest court today ordered the government to supply a drug to HIV-positive mothers and their new-born babies pending an appeal in May.
The Constitutional Court ruled the government must immediately implement a Pretoria High Court order to supply anti-retroviral Nevirapine on public health wherever possible to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
The government has been resisting pressure to supply Nevirapine across South Africa, saying it lacks the infrastructure and has doubts about the safety of the drug.
The court saga began last year when AIDS lobby group the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) won a high court order compelling the state to supply Nevirapine to HIV-positive pregnant women wherever it was feasible to do so.
The state's appeal against that ruling will be heard by the Constitutional Court from May 2nd. But the TAC last month won a separate order in the Pretoria High Court forcing the health ministry to obey the ruling in the interim.
The Constitutional Court today denied President Mr Thabo Mbeki's government leave to appeal against that latest high court order, forcing it to begin supplying Nevirapine beyond 18 clinics where it has been doing trials.
Chief Justice Mr Arthur Chaskalson said the ruling did not mean the government had to supply the drug "wholesale", but only where it could and the drug was prescribed with the consent of the doctor and medical superintendent.
AFP