The Minister of Health and his permanent secretary have been ordered to immediately take steps to provide urgent, appropriate and specialised healthcare for a child born with microcephaly in 2017.
High Court judge, Justice Joan Charles ruled in favour of the boy’s mother on Friday, after she challenged the Health Ministry’s failure to provide suitable and specialised care for her son, who is now 6-years-old.
The health minister and his permanent secretary were also ordered to arrange for financial assistance for the child’s care on an ongoing basis as well as implement proper protocols to assist the mother and the child in the management of his disabilities caused by microcephaly within three months.
Justice Charles held that the failure of the Attorney General, which was named as a defendant in the claim, to provide urgent and specialised healthcare to the boy was in breach of his constitutional right to life.
The judge has awarded compensation for damages and aggravated to the boy and his mother for the constitutional breach as well as the breach of statutory duty of the minister and the PS plus interest from February 3, 2017, when the child was born, to the present, which will be assessed by a Master of the High Court.
The mother challenged the ministry’s failure to provide her with financial assistance despite promises that she would get a grant through the Social Development Ministry for children diagnosed with microcephaly due to the Zika virus.
She also said the ministry failed to implement proper protocols to help mothers who gave birth to babies born with microcephaly.
In addition to ruling against the State, the judge also pointed out that “no explanation” had been given for the failure to publish or implement the national guidelines for several years after Zika had been declared a public health emergency, and “after pregnant women had been infected with the virus and hundreds of children had been born with microcephaly.”