Cape Town — Provinces are expected to get the go-head today to give pregnant HIV-positive women the drug nevirapine to prevent them from passing the virus to their babies.

Sources close to Health Minister Manto Tshabalala Msimang predicted she would make the announcement in her Budget speech to parliament today.

The minister unilaterally delayed the implementation of the 18 provincial mother-to-child pilot programmes due to start on April 1 when she decided that they needed cabinet approval.

However, since then she has failed to present the matter to the Cabinet - largely because she has been attending a series of meetings outside the country.

The Western Cape and Gauteng have already started their nevirapine programmes, while KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State and the Northern Cape have been ready to do so since early April.

A number of provincial health officials said they had been told not to speak to the press, but said they were frustrated by the delay as it was at the cost of babies' lives.

About 200 HIV positive babies are born in South Africa every day, most of whom die before the age of five.

The country's youngest Aids activist, Nkosi Johnson, died on Friday.

Had he and his mother each been given a single tablet of nevirapine, his chances of getting HIV could have been reduced by about 40%.

Nevirapine's manufacturer, Boehringer Ingelheim, has offered the drug free to all member states of the South African Development Community for five years.

Treatment Action Campaign spokesperson Nathan Geffen pointed out that the 18 projects would reach only about 10% of HIV positive pregnant women, and he called on the government to roll out more programmes as soon as possible. - Health-e News Service.