The compassion we all feel when looking at Sarudzai’s face is heightened by the knowledge that if she had received antiretroviral therapy, the spread of infection would have been almost suppressed and within weeks she would be much better.

A patient’s compromised immune system lays them open to numerous diseases that can attack virtually any part of the body. Each needs specific treatment. The greatest problem from HIV is the effect of concurrent TB — often of the type that has become resistant to standard treatment.

The basic treatment of Aids and HIV in Africa is dependent on three factors: the patients need antiretroviral therapy, they need TB to be treated, and they must cooperate with the treatment regime. In Britain, it costs about £16,000 to treat and care for an HIV patient. In Africa, it would be hundreds, not thousands, because big pharmaceutical companies sell the drugs at cost price.

However subsidised the medical treatment, the patients must have enough funds so that they remain well fed while beginning to recover. Then, of course, they need a job to earn enough to maintain treatment and nourishment. It is often difficult to persuade patients to keep taking drugs with unpleasant side-effects after their condition begins to improve. In the West there is an infrastructure that gives the patient every encouragement to take treatment. The national economy also provides adequate work, or social assistance, to see that food and lodging are available.

In most of Africa — and especially in bankrupt Zimbabwe — medical supervision is minimal, drugs are not available and the populace is starving.

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