In August, AIDS activists took legal

In August, AIDS activists took legal action against the South African health ministry over its continuing refusal to supply antiretrovirals to prevent mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV.¹²⁰ In December, it was ruled that the South African government should give pregnant women free access to the drug nevirapine. The judge ordered the government to set up a nationwide MTCT programme with a deadline for an implementation report to be handed back to the court by March 2002.¹²¹

Ministers meeting at the World Trade Organisation conference in Doha, Qatar, agreed a new declaration on intellectual property rights. This made it easier for developing country governments to license the production of drugs against AIDS and other diseases without having to get permission from patent holders. It was hoped that the new rules would help improve access to antiretrovirals.¹²²

It was reported that some Asian countries had reduced the transmission of HIV through widespread condom use. In Thailand, the rate of new infections had plummeted from 143,000 in 1991 to 20,000 in 2000.¹²³ Meanwhile HIV was spreading fastest in Eastern Europe and Russia.¹²⁴

A senior Iranian health official warned that the number of AIDS cases in the country had risen dramatically. In the past, Iranian officials estimated the number of HIV-positive people to be around 2,000, but the Deputy Health Minister said that the real figure was more than 15,000.¹²⁵