De Lille never discussed whether to name or protect identities of HIV+ women

‘It was never an issue and it was never discussed,’ the Independent Democrats leader told the court under cross-examination by Daniel Berger, acting for the AIDS Law Project, representing the women. ‘I put it to you that you should have thought about it, because you were aware of confidentiality issues about private facts. At best, it was extremely reckless to proceed to name the three plaintiffs when (not doing so) would not have affected your book, not one iota,’ Berger contended. A News24 report says the three women are suing De Lille, author Charlene Smith and publisher New Africa Books about the publication of their identities and HIV status in De Lille\'s biography Patricia de Lille. They are each claiming R200 000 from each of the defendants and demand that their names be removed from the book. De Lille claims she intervened on the women\'s behalf after they approached her with complaints about an HIV/AIDS drugs trial in which they took part at Kalafong Hospital, outside Pretoria, between 1999 and 2001. She said that if anyone was reckless it was a professor who named the women in a report on his independent investigation of the drugs trial, then made the report available to her and to two journalists. Full report on the News24 site