We are hearing the latest excuse from our government for not being able to get antiretrovirals to those who need them. We are told that thousands more nurses need to be trained to administer the drugs.So, instead of pronouncing that the drugs are poisonous (as happened 20 years ago) and are not to be kept or dispensed on health premises, the government now pretends to embrace them, but very ineffectively.We should never forget that the deputy president in those days was Jacob Zuma and he headed the national Aids committee and the ethics committee. He never once challenged Thabo Mbeki's view that only good nutrition could ward off the "syndrome" of Aids. He even told us that he had sex with an HIV-positive woman and showered to protect himself.We are now told that we have a shortage of thousands of nurses to dispense ARVs and must reopen the many nursing colleges that were closed because of "excess" capacity.This is Africa and we have a traditional health system which many Africans trust. Those healers and carers must be incorporated into the health system as outreach workers who can relate to the public and refer patients to hospital.They would become the front line in the war against Aids. Too much time has been wasted and we now have the worst Aids death rate in the world. ..