Fight AIDS as well as the brain drain

By Frank Feeley / The Lancet

Contributed By Abt Associates

Published: 2006

Leaders in international health have begun to address the critical shortage of professionals in the poor regions of the world with the highest disease burden. The report Human Resources for Health: Overcoming the Crisis was issued by the Joint Learning Initiative in 2004. The 2006 World Health Report: Working Together for Health emphasized the need to expand the supply of health workers in poor countries. But many articles on the loss of health professionals in sub-Saharan Africa highlight migration to higher paying jobs in wealthier countries as a major cause of the shortage of health professionals. In fact, emigration is not the greatest drain on the supply of health professionals in some countries severely affected by AIDS. Death is depleting the ranks of health professionals more rapidly than recruitment abroad.

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