Thousands of miles from home, in a region of the world where a human rights culture is new terrain and the HIV pandemic is poised to infect millions of people unless urgent action is taken, South Africans found themselves on all too familiar territory.

But we were not sharing our expertise at resolving conflict or forging national reconciliation. We were not sharing innovative solutions to complex problems nor exploring how to bridge the divide between two economies. We were doing what, sadly, has become predictable when it comes to HIV/AIDS. We were quarrelling.

Anger has been brewing all week among activists outraged at insinuations by the health minister on the opening night of the conference that they were responsible for forcing government to adopt a single dose regimen of nevirapine to prevent the transmission of the virus from mothers to children.

This anger and frustration were fuelled by the release of a media statement from the Medicines Control Council the next day saying that it recommended that nevirapine no longer be used as a monotherapy.

The ensuing confusion ‘€“ exacerbated by the distance between scientists and activists here in Bangkok and nurses and pregnant women waiting for prevention therapy at home ‘€“ boiled over on  Wednesday.

The South African daily media were involved too. Pulled from one camp to another ‘€“ each action must get a reaction ‘€“ the story rolled out, adding volume to the voices and raising the stakes.

I will not speak for my colleagues, although I know many of them felt the same, but I despaired as events unfolded. Bad memories of four years ago flooded back.

In 2000, discussions at the Durban AIDS conference had been overshadowed by the debate whether HIV caused AIDS. Two years ago in Barcelona, the Constitutional Court ruling compelling government to fulfill its obligations to offer antiretroviral therapy to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child was high on the conference agenda. So were calls for a programme to offer antiretroviral therapy to all those South Africans who need it.

This year, on the eve of the Bangkok conference, the UNAIDS released revised figures showing that 5,3 million South Africans are living with HIV. An estimated 400 000 people are sick and need antiretroviral therapy. One in ten youths under the age of 24 are HIV positive, the numbers go on and on.

But behind these numbers are people ‘€“ friends and strangers. All fellow citizens.

In November last year our country and the worldwide AIDS community rejoiced as Cabinet approved a comprehensive plan to treat and care for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Yet figures released two weeks ago by the AIDS Law Project at the University of the Witwatersrand showed that less than 10 000 people are on treatment in the public sector.   In the private sector, some 20 000 people can afford to buy their health.

There is urgent work to be done on many fronts to improve treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS in our country. This is why many South African health workers, scientists, government officials, activists and researchers are here in Thailand ‘€“ to exchange ideas and learn more. But this was not why we were meeting in Hall M at the Impact Conference Centre in Bangkok.

The outcome of the meeting? On the issue of nevirapine and its recommended use, confusion was cleared and the temperature of the debate came down. But as for the bigger picture ‘€“ how to ensure concerted, co-ordinated action by civil society and government to address the challenges that faces us – the disappointment, fatigue and exasperation were palpable as we left the room.

In the words of UN Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS Stephen Lewis, once again ‘€œconfusion, obfuscation, complication and controversy’€ were part of the latest episode in the South African HIV/AIDS story.

It’€™s time we wrote another chapter.