SA government under pressure to introduce new PMTCT regimen
South African AIDS activists have called on doctors and nurses to act in the best interests of HIV-positive pregnant women and their unborn children by not waiting any longer for an official directive to switch from single antiretroviral (ARV) treatment to more effective dual treatment for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT).
At a meeting of the South African National AIDS Council in November 2007 South Africa's Deputy President and the Director-General of Health announced that public health facilities would abandon the regimen of administering nevirapine only in favour of a short course of two antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for pregnant HIV-positive women.