The Right to Health and the Nevirapine Case in South Africa

This article describes the successful legal challenge of the South African government's controversial decision to restrict the availability of nevirapine for use in preventing the transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) from mother to infant. With its order requiring the government to provide comprehensive health services to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, the Constitutional Court of South Africa upheld the public's right to health care, as guaranteed in the South African constitution.