nullified and our struggle had to continue. six months later, we were back on the streets, we were protesting, we had to launch a new court case this time against our government over the question of access to drugs that prevent mother to child hiv transmission. the intervention was so simple and so cheap. a single tablet of nevirapine, which costs about 10 rand, can save children from hiv. it was as simple as this to prevent a new hiv infection and to save a life. and injuly of 2002, the constitutional court ordered the government to supply these medicines to pregnant women who had hiv. the steps that have to be taken to comply with the order that we make should be taken without delay. it was another very, very emotional moment, and after we d won, we were in a much stronger position to say that these
a single tablet of nevirapine, which costs about 10 rand, can save children from hiv. it was as simple as this to prevent a new hiv infection and to save a life. and injuly of 2002, the constitutional court ordered the government to supply these medicines to pregnant women who had hiv. the steps that have to be taken to comply with the order that we make should be taken without delay. it was another very, very emotional moment, and after we d won, we were in a much stronger position to say that these medicines should be made available to any person who had hiv or aids in our country, to save their lives as well. 20 years later, and i can say to you that our struggle probably saved 5 million lives because today, 5.5 million people have access to antiretroviral medicine, and you can put that down to the struggles we waged
because our president, president mbeki, had begun questioning whether hiv caused aids. it s the misunderstanding about the science of this question. and so, they did not make these drugs available, even though they could now afford to make the drugs available through our public health service. so, the victory was almost nullified and our struggle had to continue. six months later, we were back on the streets, we were protesting, we had to launch a new court case this time against our government over the question of access to drugs that prevent mother to child hiv transmission. the intervention was so simple and so cheap. a single tablet of nevirapine, which costs about 10 rand, can save children from hiv. it was as simple as this, to prevent a new hiv infection and to save a life. and injuly of 2002, the constitutional court ordered the government to supply these medicines to pregnant women who had hiv.