Brain drain

Throughout Africa, the shortage of trained medical personnel is hurting the effort to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, and other diseases, including malaria and tuberculosis. NGOs had hoped that the G-8 nations would agree to commit new resources to this problem, but they failed to do so. According to an estimate, doubling Africa’s health workforce, which would still not meet the full need, would cost about $2 billion in the first year and $7.7 billion by the fifth year.

The shortage of doctors, nurses, and health workers is a two-sided problem. Not only do many countries lack the universities to train and educate the personnel they need, but often the nurses and doctors they do produce decide to leave Africa for the better pay and

more comfortable living conditions of the industrialised world.

A comprehensive solution would go beyond funds for training and better pay for medical personnel in Africa to include commitments by industrialised nations to educate more of their own doctors and nurses and to curb recruitment in underserved areas.

Providing AIDS drugs is a great step forward, but the industrialised countries

will fail in addressing the full dimensions of the AIDS pandemic if they do not help Africa build a stronger corps of trained health workers. — The Boston Globe