wfn.org | ACNS - Archbishop Ndungane responds to Court ruling on AIDS in South

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Africa

ACNS 3055 - SOUTH AFRICA - 8 July 2002

Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane responds to Constitutional Court ruling on
AIDS in South Africa

The Constitutional Court's ruling that compels the government to provide
drugs that reduce the risk of the transmission of HIV from mother to foetus
is both welcome and alarming. While the outcome is a tribute to those who
have persevered against severe odds to bring the Government to its moral
obligation to care for its citizens, we cannot lose sight of the time and
lives that have in the meanwhile been lost and will continue to be at risk
until our State hospitals shift into gear. I have said it before and will
say it again: to dither on these issues is to fail Creation.

I also firmly believe that it is time to look way beyond mother-to-child
transmission of the disease and to bring anti-retrovirals out of the arena
of the elite and into the domain of the vast majority who need them. I say
this against the backdrop of the latest UN AIDS report and its warning that
the pandemic is yet to peak.

It is this report that clearly warns us that access to care is a basic
necessity in programming in every setting - from the wealthiest to the
poorest - and needs to encompass the full continuum, including
anti-retroviral therapy.

We need, particularly if we want to realise our Nepad dreams, to act quickly
and with common purpose.

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