GOVT SEEKS LEAVE TO APPEAL NEVIRAPINE JUDGMENT.

The government will on Friday seek leave to appeal to the Constitutional Court against a Pretoria High Court order compelling it to provide the anti-retroviral drug nevirapine to all medically-suited HIV-positive pregnant women and their babies. The matter is to be heard before Pretoria High Court judge Chris Botha at 9.30am. Health Department spokesman Sibani Mngadi said the appeal, if permission was granted, would be directed to the highest court of the country "because the issue deals with a whole range of constitutional matters". The Treatment Action Campaign, which brought the successful application against the government in December, said it intended asking the judge on Friday for an order that his earlier judgment be carried out pending the appeal. "The consequence of a delay in the judge's original order to supply nevirapine will cause irreparable harm to those infants infected with HIV and ...