AFRICA: Health worker scarcity in AIDS-ridden countries highlighted

JOHANNESBURG, 25 Nov 2004 (PLUSNEWS) - A new study to be published in the Lancet has, for the first time, quantified the dangerous scarcity of healthcare workers in countries with climbing rates of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.

The report, 'Human Resources for Health: Overcoming the Crisis', says health workers from developing countries are lured by better salaries and safer working conditions in urban areas or richer countries, creating the so-called "brain-drain".

It is estimated that Uganda currently has one nurse or midwife per 11,365 people, while Liberia has one per 10,000 people, and the entire African continent graduates a mere 5,000 doctors a year.

At least one million new health workers - triple the current number - are needed immediately in sub-Saharan Africa alone, the report notes.

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