BOTSWANA’s government was instructed by the High Court in Gaborone on
Friday to provide and pay for antiretroviral (ARV) treatment for
HIV-positive foreign prisoners.
The court held that the denial of
ARV treatment to foreign prisoners violated Botswana’s constitutional
rights. Botswana has one of the world’s highest rates of HIV infection
and prisoners who are citizens of the country receive free HIV
treatment. Prisoners who are not citizens have hitherto had to pay for
the treatment.
The challenge was launched by the Southern Africa
Litigation Centre with the Botswana Network on Ethics, Law and HIV/AIDS
and two HIV-positive foreign prisoners.
Priti Patel, the centre’s
deputy director, said that the state had failed to prove its claim that
it could not afford to provide ARV treatment to foreign prisoners.
"If you are going to argue cost, you have to show evidence of that," she said.
In
its ruling the court said providing free ARV treatment to non-citizen
prisoners would help prevent the spread of HIV and other opportunistic
infections, such as tuberculosis.
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