Actress Angelina Jolie confessed that, when she brought her 6-month old daughter Zahara from Ethiopia, the little girl was suspected of being infected with Aids.

When Jolie first arrived in US with Zahara, she went straight to the hospital. The baby was hospitalized one week at the New York's Presbyterian Hospital, for salmonella intestinal infection as well as dehydration and malnutrition, conditions which would have led to her death in her African homeland.

Dr Jane Aronson, an expert in healthcare for infants adopted overseas, declared at that time that the actress saved her daughter's life and affirms that it is certain the baby would have died in the Ethiopian orphanage.

She said: "Children with those conditions living in orphanages in developing nations can die quickly without the proper medical interventions."

Angelina declared: "We didn't know at first. I was terrified, but prepared, because it is something I think we should all be ready to take on."

The twice-divorced adopted the Ethiopian baby-girl as her son Maddox suggested he wanted a sister from Ethiopia, the country he appeared to like best.