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Sat April 14th, 2007
Africa
needs one million health workers
Africa is in need of about one
million health workers, a World Health Organisation (WHO)
official said in Johannesburg on Thursday.
The deficit worldwide was about four million, said the
executive director of the Global Health Workforce Alliance, Dr
Francis Omaswa.
"Africa is a real catastrophe," he told reporters on
the margins of an African health ministers' conference.
As a result of the shortage and Africa's burden of disease,
average life expectancy in some parts of Africa had dropped to
30, while 60 was the expected maximum.
Global warming was causing malaria
to spread, which added to the pressures created by Aids and
new epidemics like avian flu and severe acute respiratory
syndrome (Sars).
A 2006 WHO report identified 57 countries - 36 of them in
sub-Saharan Africa - which had such critical shortages that
they could not provide basic healthcare.
The alliance, established in May
2006, had as its aim the strengthening of the world's health
workforce and the creation of better working conditions.
Omaswa said after independence of African countries many
training institutions were not upgraded and health was not
made a priority. In addition the economies of the continent
did not perform well and foreign donors imposed policies that
led to a reduction in civil servants.
The former chief executive of the UK's National Health
Service, Sir Nigel Crisp, said people in Africa were dying
largely of preventable diseases.
"If you train medical assistants, they can do 'simpler'
but fantastically important things. A lot of those people you
can train quite quickly."
Dr Lincoln Chen, president of the US-based China Medical
Board, said Africa's health worker shortage was not yet past
its worst point due to the time lag involved in training new
doctors and nurses. "I think that it will get
worse."
Workers themselves were susceptible to diseases like HIV and
Aids and often found themselves playing the role of
"terminal care workers" to those beyond hope, which
had a demoralising effect.
Chen said within Africa, South Africa and Botswana's health
workers were the best paid. While the two countries were also
net importers of staff on the continent, in a global context
they lost workers to the north.
Aid agency Oxfam urged governments and donors to provide more
aid to solve the shortage.
In a report "Paying for People" published on
Thursday, Oxfam estimated that $13,7-billion had to be
invested every year to fund the additional 2.1 million
teachers and 4.2 million health care workers, half of them in
Africa, who were needed to break the cycle of poverty.
"The International Monetary Fund should stop imposing
ceilings on the wage bills for health and education budgets in
developing countries and should leave such decisions to
individual countries which are in a better position to judge
the most appropriate use of their budgets," it wrote in a
statement.
Africa was estimated to have three percent of the world's
health workers but 25 percent of the world's burden of
disease.
Africa's health systems at
'crisis levels'
Most African Union (AU) member states rely heavily on donor
funding to support their public health services and most are
"highly dependent" on imported medicine.
The staffing of Africa's health systems has hit crisis levels.
Just three percent of the world health work force is in
Africa, while Africa suffers from 25 percent of the world's
burden of disease.
These are among the topics to be discussed at the third
ordinary session of the AU Conference of Ministers of Health
which starts in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
The gathering, held once every two years, aims to find ways of
improving the health of Africa's population.
World health organisation officials and representatives from
NGOs and other civil society organisations are expected to
attend.
The conference, held under the theme Strengthening Health
Systems for Equity and Development, is also due to discuss
African traditional medicine, a pharmaceutical manufacturing
plan and a "recommitment" to an African malaria
plan.
How Africa can do better
on health
Africa needs to become more self-reliant to improve the
health of its people, the chairperson of the African Union's
commission said in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Professor Alpha Konare said African countries have to make
sure they get better prices for their raw materials, stop the
"ruinous wars" that prevent health strategies from
being carried out, and put a stop to money flowing out of the
continent illegally.
He was briefing journalists following the opening of the third
ordinary session of the AU Conference of Ministers of Health.
"I'm convinced that if we can better harmonise our
programmes, we can save money," he said,
The gathering, held once every two years, aims to develop an
integrated health strategy for Africa.
"Last year we made new commitments to make resources
available, but when I look at the tools being implemented, I
see no positive developments," Konare said.
Advocate Bience Gawanas, the commissioner for social affairs
of the AU, said on average between 3% and 10% of government
spending of AU countries goes towards health. In 2001, a
commitment was made that this be at least 15%.
"We have not achieved it; we need to continuously
push," said Gawanas, adding it is also important that
available resources be used effectively. Budgets should be
managed so that the effects of spending are felt by the
intended recipients.
A pharmaceutical manufacturing plan is one of the conference's
agenda items. Most of the AU's 53 member states are
"heavily dependent" on imported medicine.
Gawanas said the plan emerged from the belief that Africa has
the capacity to produce both the required quality and quantity
of drugs. "I'm very confident that we are moving closer
to a more collective approach to the issues."
Acting South African health minister Jeff Radebe said he
thinks it is possible for Africa to manufacture its own
medicines. He called for uniform policies and standards as
well as standardised institutional arrangements for drug
distribution.
On Africa's continuing malaria problem, he believes a
"concerted effort" can eradicate it. The World
Health Organisation has noted that South Africa's use of the
controversial pesticide DDT "could go a long way"
towards eradicating the problem, said Radebe.
"We believe that the goal of 2010 for the eradication of
malaria is possible," he said.
Other programmes the conference will be asked to approve
include ways of dealing with tuberculosis, traditional
medicines, violence, and the scarcity of health workers.
According to a Global Burden of Disease report, road-traffic
accidents are the eighth leading contributor to the burden of
disease in sub-Saharan Africa, and the third in North Africa.
The staffing of Africa's health systems has hit crisis levels.
Just 3% of the world's health work force was in Africa, while
the continent suffers from 25% of the world's burden of
disease.
The conference, attended by World Health Organisation
officials and representatives from NGOs and other civil
society organisations, ends on Friday.
esinislam.com + Agencies
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