In Botswana—land of Precious Ramotswe and the No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency—the health services are fighting one of the highest rates of HIV infection in Africa

“We are so grateful. These days we are burying old women again,” a village chief said with noticeable relief to Botswana's minister of health, Sheila Tlou. It was anecdotal evidence of an improvement in the country's mortality figures, which have been dominated in recent years by the AIDS epidemic.

Before Botswana introduced an antiretroviral treatment programme for its large population of people with HIV or AIDS, the chief was burying young people.

A feature of the epidemic in the region is the high proportion of young people who die, filling cemeteries and leaving their children to be cared for by their grandparents.

Dr Tlou had been responding to a question put to her about the effect of the treatment programme. Despite the success claimed for the programme, Botswana continues to have proportionally one of the largest epidemics in the world, with about 38% of adults infected.

Botswana's health minister, Sheila Tlou, says: “HIV sprang up …