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| National |
| Brain-drain highlighted at Aids conference |
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by
Pilirani Semu-Banda, 20 July 2004
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12:22:09
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Although Malawi was one of the countries that took centre-stage at the just ended HIV/Aids global conference in Bangkok, Thailand, government did not have a specific agenda for the meeting and only sent a delegation to learn how other countries are dealing with the pandemic.
Reuters news agency reported last week that during the conference, which ended last Friday, Malawi was shown to have a more evident scale of braindrain as skilled nurses and doctors leave for better paid jobs abroad.
“This is jeopardising the global fight against Aids,” a group of US doctors were quoted as saying.
Malawi was mentioned as a country where only 28 percent of nursing posts were filled in 2003, down from 47 percent in 1998.
South Africa, which has the world’s highest number of sufferers, has vacancies for 32,000 nurses. In Zambia, only 50 of the 600 doctors who have been trained since independence in 1964 remain in the country.
Many of the workers are reported to have headed for better careers and more pay in Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Leonard Rubenstein, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights, said in a statement at the meeting Africa, at the epicentre of an HIV/Aids pandemic that has already killed 20 million people, needs to recruit tens of thousands of health care workers if it is to meet the goal of providing anti-Aids medicines to those who need them.
“We have a terrible paradox, which is how can we possibly expect to meet the needs of people with Aids when the workforce is not only declining but the prospects for further decline are great,” Rubenstein told reporters.
He said the medical personnel are leaving when a recently adopted plan by the WHO calls for massive increases in the health workforce.
Overall, more than three-quarters of countries in sub-Saharan Africa fall short of the WHO’s minimum standard of 20 doctors per 100,000 people and 13 countries have five or fewer per 100,000.
And asked what agenda Malawi had for the meeting, Minister of Health Hetherwick Ntaba said on Monday government sent officials from his ministry and the National Aids Commission (Nac) to learn from other countries across the world.
Ntaba, who was not part of the delegation, said he was waiting for a report on the meeting.
“We wanted to learn from the other countries at the meeting on the principles and other general discussions,” said Ntaba.
At the meeting, the United States rejected a plea from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to inject $1 billion a year into a global Aids fund.
Former South African president Nelson Mandela also appealed for more funds towards fighting the scourge.
Last December, the WHO set a target to get antiretroviral medicines to three million people in developing countries by the end of 2005. Only 440,000 receive them, including 150,000 in Africa.
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