Amparo action to obtain supply of the drugs needed to treat persons living with HIV/AIDS. Court order urging Health and Assistance Ministry to deliver the drugs on a regular and reliable basis. Order to correct budgetary allocation and to develop preventive policies including information, awareness, education and full assistance programs.
Although it had been requested that the decision be made extensive to all those affected and not just the applicants, the Court did not uphold this request. Consequently, the action was repeatedly filed on many occasions until the social security system changed the policy. In 2001, in another case filed by PROVEA and ACCSI against Instituto Venezolano de los Seguros Sociales (IVSS, Venezuela’s Social Security Authority), the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Division acknowledged common interests by accepting a group of HIV-positive persons -who had filed an amparo seeking drugs- as representatives of all people suffering the virus (see in this database López Glenda y otros c. Instituto Venezolano de los Seguros Sociales (IVSS) s/ acción de amparo).
Although the decision did not extend its effects to all those affected (but only to the applicants), this case shows the potential of filing multiple individual actions to achieve a modification in a given health policy of general scope.
Applicants: Cruz del Valle Bermúdez y otros, sponsored by Acción Ciudadana Contra el Sida (ACCSI) (http://www.internet.ve/accsi/).