When Jesus Rodriguez, 51, was diagnosed as HIV positive 13 years ago, the virus had nearly destroyed his immune system.

After spending over a year without proper antiretroviral treatment that keeps the virus under control, which have fallen victim to Venezuela’s crisis, Mr Rodriguez now worries he could become seriously unwell again.

As a last resort, he and hundreds of other HIV-positive patients without treatment in Venezuela have turned to drinking herbal juice made from the bay cedar leaf, a small tree found in forests and pastures of South America and the Caribbean.

“Other patients and I saw information online about the bay cedar, a plant that is produced in the Brazilian forest, and Brazilian doctors who used it to treat HIV,” Mr Rodriguez said.

That Venezuelans with chronic conditions have turned to alternative medicines in lieu of traditional ones highlights the spectacular nature of the country’s collapse, formally a regional leader in healthcare.

Only four years after the beginning of an economic recession, pharmaceutical organisations estimate that 80 percent of medicines are unavailable.

These days doctors and nurses must ask patients to bring their own syringes, gloves, and medicines, hospitals spend weeks without running water, and xray and radiation machines stay damaged for months.